GERMANY 3.0
The “Stammtisch” as a Model for Designing Future Collective Identities
Research, Speculative Visual Essay
The “Stammtisch” as a Model for Designing Future Collective Identities
Research, Speculative Visual Essay
Germanys identity exists within an unresolved dilemma: It is caught between abstract post-war values, that rarely translate into a tangible sense of belonging and the material traces of its authoritarian past, that offer familiarity but remain outdated and morally contested. As a result, national identity often feels unresolved, leaving most people in the country unable to feel at home.
Starting from this point, the project explores three possible futures for German identity through material exploration. The first two speculations reveal structural loops: Creating entirely new national symbols feels unfamiliar, while reviving historical ones remains morally problematic. Both speculations remain trapped in the logic of national representation, demonstrating that designing around existing symbols of German identity is a structural dead end.
The third speculation proposes a shift in perspective: rather than viewing identity as a representation, it is considered as a shared, lived experience. In this context, the Stammtisch – a regulars’ table in Germany where identity is reinforced through repetition, presence, and interaction– becomes a tool to create decentralised forms of belonging. The forward-looking question then becomes: How will these social spaces evolve in the future, and how can designers preserve their qualities?
To explore how the qualities of the Stammtisch could translate into future digital environments, the project develops a speculative visual essay. Rather than reinforcing placeless, global networks, it imagines localized, participatory spaces shaped through speculative frameworks such as the hyperlocal mesh, avatar and spatial customization, and speculative open-source tools based on 3D-scanning.
In these scenarios, communities actively shape their own digital environments of belonging, so that identity is collectively produced through participation. These environments function as designed counter-publics, which are bounded, collective, and self-determined, allowing decentralized identity to emerge from the ground up rather than being imposed by algorithmic or capitalist systems.
By doing so the design research contributes a speculative yet situated perspective on how alternative social and digital infrastructures might support more plural, participatory, and resilient forms of collective identity. Against the many structural dead ends designers encounter while engaging in the production of national symbols, the project provides a forward-looking outlook: beyond visual research, it could evolve into workshops, prototypes, or other participatory formats that invite communities to explore and co-create their own conditions of belonging.