DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

Andreas UNTEIDIG, Florian SAMETINGER, Jennifer SCHUBERT,
Veronika AUMANN and Max SCHÄTH, Gesche JOOST
The overarching design question evolved into asking ourselves if and how we can scale
and transfer this idea from the club — as a rather enclosed and protected setting with a
very determined subject (computer skills) — to a larger environment of the surrounding
neighborhood on the Fischerinsel.
Interventions
As an introductory step towards presenting the project to a broader public, as well as to
grasp the different variations of interest in knowledge that are to be found among the
citizens of this part of Berlin, we are currently developing and testing a variety of playful
design interventions.
Like all other steps in the process, this happens in collaboration with our co-design-group
at the SCC and with representatives of the Kreativhaus community center.
Besides raising the interest of and playfully involving the inhabitants in the process, the
goal is to test different means of communication and ways to gather information. We see
the interventions as a work-in-progress experiment that will help to develop and refine our
research methods.
Figure 1: temporary participatory design lab and the idea machine
The first intervention involved putting a blackboard outside during a summer festival in
the Kreativhaus. It depicted questions such as “What do you know best?” and “What do
you want to know more about?”
Although it appeared difficult to get people to write something on the board, in contrast to
the conversations facilitated by the installation, this intervention and especially the
accompanying conversations made clear that there is a broadly shared interest in
knowledge about the community itself, manifested in questions like “Who lives next
door?”, “Who is living here in general?”, “What will the district be like in XY years?”, “What
opportunities are there to improve the Kreativhaus as a local hub?”, etc.
Conference Proceedings 1681