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If This Street Was Ours: Provoking the Reimagination of the City as a Democratic Space
No full textThis paper revisits the event ‘se essa rua fosse nossa’ (if this street was ours) held in 2014, in Curitiba, Brazil, that aimed to provoke, discuss, and propose new ways of thinking and designing the public spaces in the city so they can be more open, accessible, inclusive, and democratic. With the perspective of a decade, the goal is to analyze its positive outcomes in the city, then, and in the present moment. The event consisted of a series of critical and creative activities. Its closure was a pop-up parklet that occupied half a block using urban furniture resulting from one of the workshops. We discuss the event and its outcomes through the light of design activism and critical design. Beyond the local impact, we believe that sharing our results of reimagining public spaces can contribute to the theoretical discussions around the topic, additionally inspiring people to take action
The Evolving Roles of Modern Designers: Through the Lens of Design Behavioral Patterns within Work Environments Enhanced by Generative AI
No full textIn the rapidly advancing landscape of generative AI, the role of designers is constantly being reshaped amidst the choice between traditional tools and emerging technologies. To comprehend this transformation, we developed a platform integrating multiple generative AI models and allowed for unrestricted search and sketching to emulate a realistic working scenario. Within this setting, we analyzed the design behavioral patterns exhibited by experienced designers: through both quantitative and qualitative analyses, we examined the cause and effect of generation patterns and iteration patterns. This exploration inspired insights into the designer\u27s evolving role, transitioning to a continuous learner and being more than a curator when incorporating generative AI
Spatial distribution, characterization, and policy opportunities for Taiwan\u27s solo elderly: a big data approach
No full textAs Taiwan approaches super-aging by 2025, this study uses the 2022 Ministry of the Interior database combined with geospatial analysis and machine learning to examine solo elderly demographical patterns and assess current Community Care Stations. Findings: 1. Urban areas have higher aging and solo rates closer to city centers, while rural areas show the opposite pattern; 2. Dual aging (elderly and old houses) is common in metropolitan areas; 3. Solo elderly are predomi-nantly urban females, suburban males, often separated, widowed, or divorced, with fewer children or residing in different regions; 4. Both advantaged and dis-advantaged solo elderly are identified in major metropolitan areas, requiring tailored policies for housing and care; 5. The idea Aging-in-place highlights disparities in service coverages at Community Care Stations. A demand-driven optimization strategy was introduced to increase urban density and expand suburban coverage. This research guides policy design for Taiwan\u27s evolving solo elderly population
Shifting between boundaries: ‘Contextual Examples’ as boundary objects in a Jeweller - Visual Artist distributed collaboration
No full textCross-disciplinary collaborations are prevalent in craft and design, during which artists draw from or apply knowledge from outside their primary field. In such creative processes, boundary objects are often present. This paper proposes \u27Contextual Examples\u27 as a new type of boundary object and traces its emergence through the analysis of data from the ‘Data-Music-Jewellery’ project - a distributed collaboration between a UK-based jeweller and a US-based visual artist. Through an initial review, 37 boundary objects, clustered into 8 types, were identified. This paper focuses on how ‘Contextual Examples’ as a novel type of boundary object seemed to support the emergence of cross-disciplinary jewellery practice. By offering a nuanced perspective on the roles of \u27Contextual Examples\u27 in this project, the paper contributes to the understanding of communication, knowledge flow, and the evolution of cross-disciplinary jewellery in collaborative settings, expanding the concept of boundary objects within design and creative practice
Exploring the design opportunities for conversational agents as reflection partners in domestic environments
No full textReflection is a core element of our everyday lives for higher self-insight and better well-being. Guided conversation is one of the methods that supports reflective thinking. The increasing abilities of conversational agent systems make them potential reflection partners for the future. Home is suitable for engaging in reflective conversations with conversational agents on daily experiences since it provides a private space. We explore the user expectations and design considerations for reflection with conversational agents through a mixed-method approach with design/HCI researchers. We first explored a psychology-based reflection approach with a diary study. Then, we designed a future-oriented methodology, adapted our findings into a scenario script for a VR experience, and used it in a workshop to gather insights on using domestic agents for reflection. This paper presents user insights and design suggestions for domestic conversational agents for reflection and reflections on using a VR prototype for future-oriented research
Is Community Currency feasible in rural China? A field study on waste sorting improvement Via Green Passbook
No full textThe Green Passbook is a Community Currency mechanism applied to waste sorting initiatives in rural areas of China. A field study was conducted at the Green Passbook national demonstration site to evaluate the local effectiveness of its practice. Through semi-structured interviews and qualitative research using the KJ method, the study shows that using a top-down approach to implement a Green Passbook policy in rural waste sorting reduces garbage and enhances awareness. Nevertheless, the standardized Green Passbook model is adopted in diverse ways across various social systems. The result shows the improvement in community and system attributes in three areas: perceived behavioral control, social norms, perceived benefits , which can help address institutional challenges. The findings are valuable in guiding the design practice of group behavioral change
Situated partnerships to face food waste within a neighborhood-based food redistribution Service: the case of SOSpesa
No full textNeighborhoods can be seen as experimental hubs where innovative design strat-egies are tested within local communities, addressing the social and environ-mental issues that impact global cities and promoting more equitable futures. In current times of crisis, amid substantial food waste, urban areas are witnessing a growing phenomenon of vulnerable groups suffering from food poverty, often coupled with limited access to fresh food. This scenario has led to a proliferation of diverse charitable initiatives, concurrently fueling researchers\u27 exploration of sustainable food commons and circular systems. However, to foster community-driven development of such models, it becomes imperative to structure services around local, proactive, and situated stakeholder networks. This paper delves in-to the core insights concerning inventive design solutions to establish situated partnerships with the double aim of fighting food waste and supporting a neigh-borhood-centric circular food redistribution service for vulnerable residents, en-acted by Off Campus Nolo (Polimi DESIS Lab) within Nolo neighborhood in Milan, Italy
Exploring the role of design in the new product development process towards circular business innovation: Systematic literature review and future directions
No full textTo safeguard our planet from the threats of resource depletion, pollution and climate change, a fundamental change in our production, consumption and lifestyle choices is required. Companies and designers play a central role in this transformation and are called to action by implementing New Product Development (NPD) processes for sustainable innovation. This systematic literature review investigates the intersection between product design, new product development process and sustainability, addressing critical questions: How does design influence the NPD process, driving companies towards circular innovation? What circular design practices have been integrated into NPD processes and how? The study provides a comprehensive examination of circular design techniques, exploring their strengths, limitations and obstacles to widespread adoption. Furthermore, the analysis charts a path for future research efforts, outlining directions that seek to harmonise NPD design processes with the circular economy, ensuring a balanced and sustainable approach to business innovation
“Feelings about the other body:” caring through and forward In design for play
No full textThis paper considers designers’ embodied engagements while designing for play from the lens of “care.” We consider such engagements as socio-material rela-tions of care, following recent theorizations of care within care studies. Relying on observations from a variety of activities undertaken by students during a two-week design workshop on embodied play design, we present a theoretical model that identifies two orders of care in design activities: First order, “care through,” indexes the immediate objects that designers attend to in the here-and-now while implementing procedures, practices and tools provided by diverse design methods. Second order, “care forward,” indicates the future beneficiaries of de-signed things, who are typically, though not necessarily, the projected users of design. The paper contributes to design literature by providing a model for in-vestigating the affective and practical relations of care in design practice, with implications for how specific design activities and methods frame care
Systemic Design Reasoning for Societal Transitions
No full textOne of the emergent approaches towards designing (for) transitions and transformations is the application of systemic design: the integration of systems theories and practice with design theories and practices. Within this field we identified two dominant perspectives and associate practices: using systemic visualisations as a sense-making tool of complex challenges, and ‘designing from within’ by means of collective designing by system stakeholders. In this paper we introduce a third perspective and practice that we call ‘systemic design reasoning’. This perspective combines the abductive reasoning logic of design with various systems theories and practices to develop ‘systemic design rationales’. We developed six systemic design principles to support this reasoning practice. Each principle is based on a specific systems theory and practice. We illustrate the principles with examples of their application in research and in education. We conclude with a research agenda to further the practice of systemic design reasoning