The second year of the project ran in the run-up to an exhibition on the Swiss design pioneer Willy Guhl under the label "GuhlSchool". In this context, the Limmat School and the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich collaborated to organize the Museum Week Willy Guhl: Young and Today.

Together with designers and teachers, the students investigated the extent to which Guhl's ideas and approaches can also be interesting and relevant for young people today. The projects ranged from material experiments and furniture construction to photographic field research in public spaces.

In this course, the students playfully immersed themselves in the concept of "thinking with their hands". They explored their surroundings with all their senses and looked at them from different perspectives. They experienced their own bodies as tools.

A particular focus was placed on the sense of touch and the haptic perception of materials and shapes, surfaces and textures.

The pupils then built games that challenged their manual skills.

The experience and knowledge gained in the "GuhlSchool" was used to further sharpen the profile of design education at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. They were directly implemented in the development of the interactive "Thinking" station in the exhibition Willy Guhl - Thinking with Your Hands (9 December 2022 - 26 March 2023) and in the planning of the education program and will lead to the conception of a new permanent exhibition of the collections, which will open on the occasion of the 150th anniversary in 2025 in the Toni-Areal.

Photos: Simon Zangger