Design research for societal challenges

Thomas van Arkel is a researcher at TU Delft’s Systemic Design Lab. He is interested in the role a design approach can play in addressing complex social issues, focusing specifically on the systemic impact of collaborations with public organisations.

Building synergetic collaborations: An investigation into working across borders in complex security issues
Increasingly, public (security) organisations are collaborating with creative professionals. These collaborations are promising but also tricky and vulnerable. It can yield a lot, if client and contractor work together more in partnership, but how do you develop a long-term, continuous form of collaboration in a systemic context of procurement and contracting and of efficiency and results orientation? In this study, they try to make a first step towards developing practices that support synergetic collaborations.

Kornelia Dimitrova is an architect and social designer specialising in healthcare communities and landscapes. In 2021, she published a Playbook for a healing environment, a spatial strategy for Landgoed De Grote Beek, one of the largest mental health institutions in the Netherlands. In her work, Kornelia often uses visual techniques to survey, analyse and interpret complexity.

How does spatial decision-making work in the healthcare sector in the Netherlands?
This research visualises spatial transformations in healthcare organisations and the decisions that lead to these transformations. Spatial developments in hospitals and mental health institutions must always balance the fragility of the present and the uncertainty of the future. Kornelia Dimitrova collected nine of these stories into one roadmap. Developed from the experiences, lessons and knowledge of decision-makers and experts, it provides an overview of transformations as a social process. The lessons presented can also be very valuable in other contexts.

Photo: about.today

Shay Raviv is a social designer and design researcher. She graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2015 and subsequently worked at Studio Irene Fortuyn and STBY, among others. She sees culture, design and creativity as means to bridge social gaps. She uses design research as a method to analyse systems or issues from different angles and offer new perspectives on social issues.

Beyond Projects
Why do some social design projects remain short-term interventions? How can we go beyond the symbolic implementation of promising ideas? Design researcher and creative director of the Embassy of Inclusive Society, Shay Raviv, recently launched her visual essay: Beyond Projects. For this, she explored what barriers in social design mean that the continuity and further development of such projects is often limited. Her proposal? Five workable approaches to increase the sustainability of social design projects.

Photo: Wouter le Duc