Hans Stefan Moritsch is Study Program Director for the BA in Design, Handwerk & materielle Kultur (Design, Craft & Material Culture) at the New Design University in St. Pölten, Austria. He is a vocal advocate of craft-based design — the practice of producing designers who hold autonomy across the full chain of design, production, and distribution in the post-industrial age.
Moritsch trained first as a craftsman, graduating from the Glasfachschule Kramsach in 1994, before completing a Diploma in Product Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2002. In 2004 he founded the bkm design working group, and his subsequent practice spans product, industrial and interior design, alongside consulting, research, and teaching. His pedagogical work emphasises the connection between theory and practice, transitions between design-focused educational formats, and applied interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of design, production, and material transformation — including practice-based doctoral projects.
His programme at NDU positions craft, design and production as evolving disciplines reshaped by CNC milling, 3D printing, AI and global networking — preparing students who treat digitalisation as an opportunity for self-determined, economically sustainable work.
He is the initiator of the Peter Bruckner Prize and a contributor to the MINT Lab Lienz