Opening of a designtheoretical discourse. Since the beginning, alpinism shows an ever-growing positive trend. Through its everlasting actuality it is a relevant topic in the media: Through time, their contribution plays a role in shaping the image of the mountain, the mountain itself as well as the style of alpine climbing.

So far, standard works showed that the topic is viewed by a cultural theoretic, historical, political or technical side, but the clarification of the theme from the designer’s point of view is still missing. With the question of research: How must the relation between mountain and design be, to display a mutual relationship?, I discuss this problem. In coming to terms with this assignment of tasks, I refer to different theories of well-known philosophers and theorists. I should mention Latour’s ANT, Burckhardt’s Promenadologie, Bourdieu’s concept of field, Löw’s Raumsoziologie, Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment as well Gumbrecht’s sports-theory, to name a few . On the basis of their theories, all design aspects of alpinism are discussed and substantiated.

This masterthesis Design of alpinism is an attempt to open a new, unprecedented design theoretical discourse and to delve and to amplify said discourse. With the aid of the practical work it will be rendered more precisely and will become more accessible to the target group through a visual essay.

Here you can watch the whole book in a short movie:
Masterthesis: Design of Alpinism