area 115+ | relax

architect: Stephan Ulrich

year: 2009

Funktionide is an amorph object whose intention is to provide the owner with an atmosphere of presence thus counteracting the feeling of loneliness. In the visions future people are lonely and they will eventually turn to “robots“ for emotional satisfaction. This gives rise to a number of questions: What happens if products that were proposed as a relief against social isolation begin to become the solution? How will it affect human interactions if people become more and more focused on their products? What will these products look like, or more important how will they behave? In this way the research that the designer Stefan Ulrich has made as his thesis' study  has the intention to create a provocative picture for discussion, which enables us to question how much we want technological products to satisfy our emotional needs. To ask these questions will become part of the responsibility of future product design. The ambiguity of this scenario is, that it could be understood as a solution to a wide range of different kinds of loneliness. But it might as well be understood as a scenario which should be avoided by all means possible.

Stefan Ulrich was born in 1981 in Berlin. After an exchange year in Usa, Georgia, he graduated from Albert Einstein Gymnasium of Berlin in 2000. Since 2005 he works as freelance designer and he had experience abroad: 6 months internship in Shanghai, China. In 2009 he wan IDA – International Design Award 2009 and in the same year he earned a graduation bachelor of arts and product design. In 2010 he had a traineeship at NPK design, a studio based in Leiden, Netherlands. Currently he focuses his activity on Brand and Design Strategist in Munich.