Professor portrait: Thomas Binder's research connects to a changing world

On 19 June 2025 at 14:30, Professor Thomas Binder will give his inaugural lecture in Auditorium 0 at the IT University of Copenhagen. The lecture is entitled: “What design can do and how it matters”.

Written 2 June, 2025 07:49 by Mette Strange Mortensen

For Professor Thomas Binder it is an important part of his work as a researcher that he is also a teacher and is in contact with the digital designers of the future. Design emerges in the interaction between people and the world around them. Therefore, he wants to inspire students to connect to the world they are going to work in rather than trying to reinvent it.

“I find it exciting to educate young people in digital design and to contribute to shaping an important professional field that is constantly evolving. The university should be a place where we not only pass on what we already know but also serve as a laboratory for exploring new ways of doing things. I see the students as important participants in that process. Therefore, as researchers and educators, we must also engage with all the ‘crooked’ problems in the world," says Thomas Binder, "when we educate young designers, it is important that they understand that, as designers, we are not meant to clear the table and invent something entirely new. We must connect with everything that is already in motion and help those who are in the midst of that movement to find their footing amidst all the fluidity and change.”

Just a five-minute walk from the IT University lies the district of Sønderbro, which is currently undergoing urban renewal, to which Thomas Binder is also contributing. Here, he has the opportunity to bring design and design culture out into the real world, engaging directly with life beyond the university.

“Design culture only improves by moving beyond the university as a closed workshop. It must connect with the world around it. I’m drawing on that right now, as I’m involved in a project focused on the urban renewal of Sønderbro. A great deal is happening there at the moment in terms of sustainability and urban development. I believe it’s important that we, as a university, step out and take part in the life of the city. We are situated in a city where so much is going on. Many things are in motion and complex, and here we can contribute — and in doing so, deepen our own knowledge and professional understanding,” says Thomas Binder.

He is now a professor at ITU, where he will give his inaugural lecture on 19 June 2025 at 14:30 in Auditorium 0. The lecture is entitled “What design can do and how it matters”.

"My lecture will focus on my perspective on design. To me, design is about playing with ideas of how the world could be. Design does not dictate how the world should be arranged, but it can open a space where we are allowed to speculate. Design plays an important role by revealing possibilities, but it should not attempt to carve those possibilities in stone. On the contrary, an open approach to design can make the world more liveable," says Thomas Binder about his inaugural lecture.

Bringing together a technical background and design research

Thomas Binder has a past at DTU, and the Danish design schools, respectively in Copenhagen and Kolding, where he was, among other things, Head of Center for Design Research and was in charge of helping the design schools’ efforts to become research-based.

This summer Thomas Binder has been at ITU for two years, and here, he truly gets the opportunity to combine his technical background with design research.

"I’ve been on a journey from the technical to more purely design-oriented work, and now I have the chance to draw on both. It’s exciting to have worked with design research, and it’s a privilege to now return to the field of interaction design, where ITU offers a vibrant research environment with a great deal to contribute," says Thomas Binder.