DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

1676 Conference Proceedings
DRS 2012 Bangkok
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand, 1–4 July 2011
Neighborhood Labs – Community building
through knowledge transfer
Andreas UNTEIDIG, Florian SAMETINGER, Jennifer SCHUBERT,
Veronika AUMANN and Max SCHÄTH, Gesche JOOST
University of the Arts Berlin
Abstract
Although one can observe an emerging trend towards concepts of sharing and
collaborative consumption, we argue that appropriate systems of knowledge sharing are
still underrepresented in local communities – especially within an inter-generational
context. We further argue that proper understanding of the needs and motivations of
stakeholders in a specific local setting is required in order to successfully implement design
interventions, especially those that lead to self-driven and sustainable learning activities
among different stakeholder groups. The presented ongoing research project Neighborhood
Labs introduces our methods for approaching a complex local social setting that is
characterized by inhabitants with diverging biographical backgrounds and lifestyles. It
also discusses our understanding of “living labs” which is supported by what we call an
“ambassador approach”.
Keywords: design for social sustainability, living lab, participatory design, community
building