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Transforming Airport Hubs into Future-Proof Multimodal Transport Hubs
Get PDFDevelopments in sustainability and digitisation outline a future of mobility, with multimodal transport becoming the new normal. Travel modalities will no longer be the focal point of mobility, but passenger experiences and the services that provide these will. In a mobility landscape, the passenger experience is key, and multi-leg trips are the norm. Multimodal Transport Hubs are essential players as they can facilitate high-quality intermodal transfers for passengers. However, this advanced application of Multimodal Transport Hubs does not yet exist in practice.
By employing a scoping review, this research approaches the transformation from an airport hub into a Multimodal Transport Hub, as airport hubs physically unite several transport infrastructures but only offer transfers with high-quality services within air traffic and not to, from and between other modalities.
Because airport hubs have features such as a complex stakeholder landscape, long development times, reliance on independent transport operators and uncertainty about the added value of integrating new travel modalities, modality innovation at airport hubs can be perceived as a systemic design challenge. This research identified a lack of theoretical knowledge regarding harnessing and integrating alternative modalities at airport hubs to transform them into fully integrated Multimodal Transpor
Possibilities and Practices of Systemic Design: Questions for the next decade of Relating Systems Thinking and Design
Get PDFAs Relating Systems Thinking and Design moves into its second decade, it is possible to question systemic design’s emerging shape. RSD1 through RSD10 have established systemic design as a field with growing mainstream recognition. However, such successes carry the risk that those things that are valuable and different in systemic design can become lost, simplified, and conventionalised. Drawing on Birger Sevaldson’s framing of systemic design as a field of possibilities, we draw attention to systemic design’s own boundary judgements and their importance in maintaining and developing the field’s pluralism and criticality. We conclude with questions that we see as crucial for systemic design: What are the possibilities and practices of systemic design? And what should they be
Critical and Pluriversal Design for a World in Crisis
No full textHow do we frame questions around design and sustainability? Do we consider the many different ways of being, doing and knowing across the planet? In this talk, Lesley-Ann Noel shares stories about design, sustainability and pluriversality and how (and why) she intentionally introduced critical theory into the design courses she was teaching, ultimately leading to the creation of design tools like The Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the Positionality Wheel.
Noel invites the audience to recognize pluriversality in sustainability and also share how these tools have impacted her own design practice and research, including providing glimpses into work in progress as a provocation for the audience to bring critical concepts into their own work
Falling in Love with Complex Systems
No full textThis talk explores how we can design capacities for working as change agents from within complex systems. This includes how we can love and not be scared of systems, how we can collaborate across diverse communities of knowledge and practice—and how we can make language that works as bridges instead of fences. Tham describes how understanding design as learning, languaging and governance (after Fletcher and Tham, 2019) can support distributed leadership, agency and new imagination.
The talk draws on transdisciplinary and co-creative research in the contexts of the global fashion sector, regional housing, an ageing society, caring for forests, as well as design education for change agents. This work is informed by feminist, decolonial, post-growth perspectives, systems thinking and action research, as well as sea swimming, playing with food, talking with ants and singing in the rain
The Role of Designers and Systemic Design in Planetary Health
Get PDFDrawing on research and extensive cases from systemic design and the circular economy, the closing remarks by SDA Board Chair Silvia Barbero will consider the role of designers and systemic design in planetary health. By working with complexity, designers can play a pivotal role in making possible an urgent radical shift toward circularity and transformational change. The convergence of co-disciplinarity discourses, the application of systemic design in industrial production, and the critical importance of environmental sustainability are key points to be considered.
Drawing on climate change data and several current examples of managing complexity in systemic design, this presentation makes a case for the way forward
Playing With The Trouble: Exploring (mini)games for interdisciplinary connections
Get PDFThis workshop explores the use of play to foster and support interdisciplinary connections and collaborations in a systemic design context. We are developing creative prototype ‘minigames’ which address different aspects of the challenges faced in collaborations between disciplines, including facilitating collective imagination, surfacing worldviews, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, and/or ‘unmaking’ systems, as part of a project which brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers working at the intersection of technical, social, political, (bio)medical, and humanistic fields. The systemic design community, experienced in crossing boundaries and working at different levels of abstraction, is well positioned to contribute to this area, but also, we hope, will benefit from participating in playtesting some of the prototype minigame activities at RSD11. We will aim to make the most of participants’ own (inter-)disciplinary and systems expertise—this is intended to be a session in which participants make new connections and collaborations with each other through play, with the minigames potentially offering useful methods for participants to use and apply in their own work and practice
A System Design and Inquiry of South Railway Station in Shanghai: From functional to symbolic
Get PDFShanghai South Railway Station, an integrated transport hub, is no longer what its designers once envisaged, while the complex system of signs & things still supports people’s actions, the actions have changed. Spontaneous gatherings of skateboards, square dancing, soliciting business, and even permanent settlement. In our observations of this complex system, we realised that the diversity of actions caused by the support of things is making the system’s design difficult. This interesting situation drew our attention to signs, things and behaviours, the multiple symbols of a complex system, the impact of spontaneous and changing actions, and particular implications of the nature of the community. We saw new perspectives and possibilities for systemic design.
We conducted a large analytical sample of the event and the groups involved, interviewed several secondary stakeholders, and used ethnographic in-depth and repeated interviews with three key informants over a three-week period, along with related cross-sectional research. We found that, in this case, the focus of system design has shifted from a functional to the impact of symbolic meaning on complex systems. The analysis of the characteristics and strengths of the community symbols generated by the transport hub itself suggested a participatory hypothesis. The use of service design methods to transform the design outcomes in specific design contexts and reshape the relationship between the design scenario and the new community, thus changing and balancing the contradictions between the new symbols of the system and the pre-determined symbols. We are excited to see similar facets in other areas; it is likely a future research direction. The purpose of this paper is to revisit and explore the issues, goals and principles of systemic design through this research, calling attention to the new perspectives on a complex system
Disciplinary Convergence in Scientific Collaboration: Using storytelling as a research integration mechanism
Get PDFCross-disciplinary research is crucial for tackling ‘wicked’ problems like sustainability transitions. Nevertheless, scientific collaboration is often hampered by disciplinary divergence in communication. Storytelling has facilitated bonding and knowledge transfer among humans throughout history. We argue that storytelling and storytelling techniques can facilitate scientific collaboration as a common language vehicle. Well-designed research stories transcend highly specialized disciplinary vocabularies and are accessible to audiences from any background. Combining storytelling elements such as character and plot, we explore the further potential of storytelling as disciplinary convergence mechanism.
In this research presentation, we investigate the application of storytelling methods to the disciplinary convergence of researchers involved in a Dutch project through three workshops. This paper presents 1) a brief review of storytelling applications in cross-disciplinary research, 2) our approach to deploying storytelling methods for disciplinary convergence, and 3) the results of its application. Workshop participants indicated that employing storytelling techniques helped them recognize their target audiences and enhanced their understanding of each other’s research projects
playful impressions
Get PDFThe goal of this exhibition was to set up an engaging atmosphere that lent itself to the artist’s desire to find and cultivate relationships that occur between community and the game of mahjong. Researching play theory, immigration studies, and contemporary art practices, while also collaborating with Saskatoon-based artist Xiao Han, this thesis investigates play and community. How can play serve as a vehicle for community, how does community enable play, and what can this activate in public spaces such as art galleries?
Keywords: Play, Community, Mahjong, Culture, Engagement, Participation, COVID-19, Immigration Studies, Accessibilit
Equitable access to public information and the role of the graphic designer
Get PDFGraphic design can be described as a “language of vision”. The primary goal is to communicate ideas and information effectively and efficiently using standard design principles, but there is a need to consider who might be excluded from accessing information when designing in a visual language. Following the social model of disability, inclusive design and accessible design both centre the idea that design needs to support and accommodate each individual user’s needs and preferences. When graphic designers consider accessibility and inclusivity in their work, the result is a better experience for all, including people with disabilities and anyone who relies on accessible delivery of information. However, research suggests a lack of consideration has been given to accessibility in graphic design and many designers don’t have the knowledge or experience to implement accessible design processes into their design solutions.
This research explores how graphic designers learn about, interpret, and implement accessibility standards into practice. The use of participatory research methods resulted in a rich depth of understanding regarding the spectrum of knowledge, attitudes, and mindsets surrounding accessible design. The design outcome is a framework and set of recommendations on how government can support the graphic design industry in integrating accessible design into the graphic design ethos. The recommendations are intended to address the challenges and barriers graphic designers currently face, and to reflect the specific supports the design industry in B.C. needs to meet internationally recognized accessibility standards and to encourage thinking beyond accessibility legislation compliance