DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

Introduction
Andreas UNTEIDIG, Florian SAMETINGER, Jennifer SCHUBERT,
Veronika AUMANN and Max SCHÄTH, Gesche JOOST
Neighborhood Labs is a participatory design research project with a focus on design for
social sustainability through community building in an inter-generational context. We
hypothesize that within this research we can create an environment that enables
participants to collaboratively improve the social fabric through knowledge sharing.
We follow a research-through-design approach (Findeli, 2008) that is supported by
qualitative design research methods, such as semi-structured interviews, online
questionnaires, analog discussion panels and other more experimental research formats.
Participatory design forms the methodological base for our inquiry. Integrating the
participants into the process at ground level so as to initiate a fundamental transfer of
authorship from the researchers/designers to the co-design partners, creating productive
gatherings of the stakeholders — for example, through Workshops — remains the central
element of our approach.
Tackling the project from the perspective of design for social sustainability, we have
several main research questions. First and foremost, we are interested in investigating
the main drivers for inter-generational knowledge sharing. We are aware that related
research has shown that research projects conducted with a participatory mindset tend to
require the researchers to adapt the research questions over time (Barab & Thomas,
2004).
Initial Research Questions:
What role does ‘the local’ play? What are the parameters of knowledge exchange (e.g.
form, content, location, time) that drive personal interaction? What is the suitable medium
of knowledge transfer in specific contexts?
Design Questions:
What kind of design intervention can support knowledge sharing as a means to
community building in a meaningful and effective way? How can we bridge the gap
between analog and digital, and between local and global? How can we provide
opportunities for access and stimulate interpersonal exchange between generations, and
thus create an environment for reciprocal learning experiences? How can the
interpersonal transfer of an intangible good (knowledge) be designed and formalized?
How can we build a base for an open, self-supported knowledge transfer system that can
grow through the interest of its participants?
Research Community & Contribution
Sustainable Design
The overall field of inquiry is design for social sustainability. With this research we intend
to contribute to the discussion of social sustainability and the role that design can play in
it. Our approach draws on work on social innovation in urban neighborhoods (Manzini,
2003), as well as on Fuad-Luke’s work on design activism, where strategies similar to
ours are described (Fuad-Luke, 2010). One of the projected outcomes is the refinement
of research methodology applied in previous projects (Göllner et.al 2010), as well as the
development of new methods that are suited for questions of community building in urban
neighborhoods.
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