Katrin Laville

Social Design, Social Change and Transformative Processes

Career history

Katrin Laville studied ceramic and porcelain design at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and jewellery and product design at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.

She worked as a design manager at Hutschenreuther AG and, in this role, was responsible for the development and repositioning of the Arzberg brand through interdisciplinary collaboration with the design, product development, marketing and sales departments.

As an artistic staff member at the Berlin University of the Arts, ID 1 Experimental Design, under Prof. Achim Heine, she was involved in teaching and interdisciplinary collaboration within the DFG research project ‘SENTHA’ – housing suitable for older people in everyday domestic life (UNIVERSAL DESIGN). The cooperation partners for the university projects she supervised include, amongst others, Messe Berlin, Donna Karan in New York and Salone Satellite in Milan.

Together with Prof. Inge Sommer and Dipl.-Des. Ina Schacht, Katrin Laville founded the design studio finedesign in Berlin and worked with clients such as Kahla, Koziol, Leonardo, mono, the Rosenthal Group, The Body Shop, Villeroy & Boch and WMF. Katrin Laville is a partner in the company dekdek Gbr – which specialises in play furniture and anti-aggression toys for children.

As a founding member and board member of the EUKMK – European Artists’ Guild for Medicine and Culture e.V. – she is committed to the development of SOCIAL DESIGN in medicine.http://eukmk.eu/

Katrin Laville has been featured in national and international exhibitions, including Passagen Köln, the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, the Kunsthal Rotterdam and Arte-Expo Brussels. Her work has been published in magazines such as Möbel Raum Design International, Design Report, Elle Decoration, Art Aurea, FAZ Magazin and Die Zeit.