Bruno Setola
Teana Boston-Mammah
Karlijn Souren
Gaspardbos
Iris Schutten
Pooling People Table by Elise van Beurden
Introduction
Social Design is not a discipline. Social design can be found within and between disciplines, design related or not. In this editorial we gather inspirational examples of good social design. This way we hope to show the variety and possibilities of social design, add to discussions about social design and last but not least ... inspire! Do you have good examples of social design, don't hesitate to upload!
Selected articles
Photo by Nikolett Kustos, 2014
2 November 2018 13:00:23 by
Manetta
In the summer of 2011 a group of dedicated students and young professionals from MOME EcoLab, the sustainability research group of Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest in Hungary, travelled to the remote Bodva valley, one of the poorest regions of Europe, to meet and help local Roma communities living in extreme poverty. The aim of the visit was to start a long-term social design project which would have relevant impacts. After four years of multiple failures, dozens of dead-ends and lots of work, the group is just about ready to understand "how to make it work"
27 November 2017 14:24:41 by
Manetta
A game that really helps players (professionals) conceptualize how new health initiatives might affect them and their respective communities on a systemic level: 'RePlay Health shows us that games as embodied experiences allow perspective taking, fictional engagement, and roleplaying, and these unconventional communication modes can significantly impact thinking on public health.'
The Sky Is The Limit is a board game that should make South African children conscious of their future prospects and the negative impact that gangs can have on these.
The lab set-up shows the process from sink to soap.
WdKA Student project: What can still be done in a household when it comes to reuse? A new use for every inch of trash can be found on the internet, so Anniek van Mierlo wanted to challenge herself to find a piece of home that was still unexplored. She searched for places that weren't likely to be used for reuse and found one place in the form of a very filthy drain...
Annelys de Vet has set up the project 'Disarming Design from Palestine'. This is an inclusive design label that presents functional products from Palestine, which provide an alternative narrative to what you might usually find in the high street. The goods are developed, designed and produced by contemporary designers, artists and students in Palestine and abroad in collaboration with local artisans and producers.
WdKA Student project: When I started studying fashion at WdKA, six years ago, it took some time to settle in a practice-oriented curriculum, since what I had expected on entering was to graduate one day with a collection of eight outfits presented in a ‘classic’ fashion show. But because times had changed, WdKA had changed too. So I changed as well, and over these past six years I started to critically question the fashion system we still are familiar with today.
Future Flex Facilitator's Handbook
WdKA Student project: Future Flex is a series of playful workshops that propose an alternative to the “Future Proof” mentality. The Future Flex experience is designed to engage organizations in an internal transition from a fear-based to a play-based way of approaching the uncertain future.
Persepolis is the visual autobiography of Marjane Satrapi, the writer and director of both the graphic novel and animated film. Persepolis tells Marjane’s story of growing up during the Iranian revolution and the start of war.
WdKA Student project: The concept of communal is in crisis. We believe it's because collectivity it isn’t an obvious given cultural factor anymore. Rotterdam will need creative entrepreneurs to constantly visualize the communal and inclusivity as our society no longer knows what this means. We live in a society that still sees a lot of individualism. Inclusive development of a society consists of ensuring that all marginalized and excluded groups are stakeholders in development processes. Which means that there is need of collaboration before we can even speak of the concept inclusive development. We, as creative entrepreneurs, can become an (in)visible bridges between individuals and stakeholders, stakeholders and marginalized and excluded groups. Bridges looking for new connections between art and society where co-creation and social- extracurricular issues are at the center of the solutions.
Mother Earth Network Projection on plants
WdKA Student Project: As a sustainable mindset designer I strongly believe that we have to break our old cultural mindsets down in order to live sustainably.
In our current cultural mindset we are placing our self-made systems above the ecosystem. We are no longer listening to what mother earth is telling us. This project can be the first step for us, to create a culture in which the ecosystem is the most important system. This could be possible if we would translate the needs of the ecosystem into our own language. Resulting in the situation where everything we will create from now on, will be submissive to mother earth.
Impression of in-game experience
WdKA Student project: Many Facebook users regularly get frustrated with annoying posts on Facebook. Usually there is nothing you can do about it. You inevitably become friends with people on Facebook who will regularly post things that you make you feel agitated. In the virtual reality game Facebook Therapy VR, it is possible to deal with your frustrations physically.
6 December 2017 15:22:25 by
Manetta
WdKA Student project: When it comes to cultural diversity in Rotterdam, the neighbourhood called 'Oude Noorden' (Old North) seems the place to be. Migration, integration and multiculturalism come together in this vibrant part of the city, sometimes causing friction but also leading to wonderful collaborations and events. An example is the local community centre 'De Mozaïek'. Twice a week, in Resto VanHarte, people can enjoy a meal that is just as diverse as the neighbourhood's population. However, we found it striking that the majority of visitors is typically Dutch, quite in contrast with the kitchen team that seems to represent integration. We were wondering how a meal prepared by such a multicultural team could be consumed by what appeared to us to be a very non-multicultural (and possibly even anti-multicultural) group?
Near the Van Hasselt canal and the IJ in Amsterdam-Noord, a former ship wharf now hosts a very special association of creative and social entrepreneurs called De Ceuvel. De Ceuvel is run by a group of architects, landscape architects, artists, photographers, designers, etc. who have an amazing approach that combines sustainability and social motives, stimulates the local economy (keeping transportation costs low) and proves to be a laboratory for (alternative) cultural, social and economic development in an autarkic and 'Do-It-Yourself' manner.
Six years ago Renate Boere worried about the populist style of communication of certain politicians. By making clever use of the 'voice of the people' these political leaders were able to gain a great deal of support in a short period of time. Renate Boere asked herself, 'can I, as a designer, do something about this?'
6 December 2017 15:21:33 by
Manetta
WdKA Studentproject: Yvonne Swiers is a fashion designer (WdKA, minor Open Design) and interested in sharing knowledge about knitwear. Therefore she initiated a project focusing on sharing knitting knowledge. This led to the following question: Which ways of sharing are possible using various knitting techniques, and how do these ways of sharing make it possible for other people to participate?
WdKA Student Project: I started this project because I feel this the subject of indoctrination is of utmost relevance in our day and age. We always talk about the outcome of indoctrination, with mass media focusing on the latest terrorist attacks or airing TV shows like “My life in a cult”. We hardly talk about the process itself. There is never just one 'red flag' moment, there are however a lot of little 'pink' ones that together can make a real impact on a child's future decisions.
Article on Meindertsma's work of disclosing the origin of pig meat to the public. It suggests on how Open Design can add to its development and impact.
6 December 2017 15:20:53 by
Manetta
WdKA Studentproject: Many women are dissatisfied with their weight and focus their attention on the aspects of their body they are unhappy with. Sophie Bragt decided developped a positive book for women; a book in which words such as 'lose weight', 'calories' and 'scale' are not used, but which focuses instead on what is necessary to make yourself feel healthy, fit and confident.
WdKA Studentproject: Hi honey is a revolutionary next step in beekeeping. The way we consume honey is completely unsustainable. With Hi Honey we can change the system.
6 December 2017 15:10:29 by
Manetta
WdKA Studentproject: Why should we still use polluting energy sources, if there is a renewable source that also cleans up pollution?
WdKA Studentproject: 'De Noorderboulevard' is a visual research of a culturally diverse street. When looking at a typical urban shopping street, often located in middle-to-lower income areas, one finds many shops representing a completely different aspect of graphic design.
Pooling People Table by Elise van Beurden
2 November 2018 13:01:12 by
Manetta
WdKA Studentproject: How can open design play a role in enhancing social contact?
2 November 2018 13:01:05 by
Manetta
WdKA Studentproject: We all know there are asylum seekers living in our country. But where exactly do they live?
Winners from the first Heijplaat Jeu de Boules Tournament. photo by: Job Taks
2 November 2018 13:00:55 by
Manetta
WdKA Studentproject: The RDM (Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij) is a former shipbuilding wharf located in a remote area in the harbour of Rotterdam. Due to the isolated location, the company built the village of Heijplaat in 1914 to provide housing for its employees. Since the 1990s however the area has undergone a series of important transformations, many of which have had a negative impact on the local population. My project 'Samenspel' focused on this specific location, and also on the question: how to reshape the connection between the RDM wharf and the village? Can I design (the implementation of) a new function for the RDM that attracts the local population?
WdKA Studentproject: The news is omnipresent in our daily lives. We consume it from early morning until evening, in all kinds of ways, through TV, newspapers, internet, telephones and radio. It determines what we talk about and how we view the world. Still, most people are not aware of the fact that the news isn’t a representation of the truth. With The Frame Game, Lotte Biesheuvel stimulates awareness among news consumers aged 18 to 45 age regarding framing in new media?
Aron Dijkstra drawing in the Kitchen of Het Verhalenhuis
WdKA Studentproject: With the development of modern technologies such as mobile phones and social media, many people in the early 21st century have argued that 'storytelling is dead' in Western society. The project 'The New Rotterdam Folk Story' attempts to do so with an online collection of stories celebrating the cultural diversity of the city of Rotterdam.
6 December 2017 15:16:12 by
Manetta
WdKA Studentproject: There are currently 2.3 million people with disabilities living in the Netherlands. Ten years after the 2006 United Nations convention on the rights of disabled people, little has changed in the Netherlands; we have actually become one of the most inaccessible countries in Europe. The project Wheelshare is based on the fact that wheelchair users feel visible for the wrong reasons, but that they also know better than anyone else which places are the most inaccessible. Wheelshare faciliates them to raise awareness on this issue.
Most existing research in oncology focuses on methods of treatment such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Few research projects so far have concentrated on supportive cancer care for children. This is why we have conducted a 'research through design' project to design, implement and evaluate interventions that stimulate adequate eating and exercising behaviour among children with cancer and their families. Our project is entitled POKO, a three-year funded project (September 2013 – December 2016).
ONSbank is a unique type of cooperative bank which helps young people clear their debts and get their lives on a positive financial track. It's a combination of an alternative business model and an activation programme in which confession, reflection and action help change the behaviour and mentality that led to the creation of the debt in the first place. To become a client of this bank you first have to successfully complete a compulsory programme and find new work together with an artist.
WdKA Student project: Inspired by the open online collection of the Rijksmuseum, being a product designer, the old measuring instruments attracted the attention of Elise van Beurden. The standard metre represents the transition to the metric system as a tool. Before that, body parts were used as measurements for trading and differed per city. Van Beurden researched how personal measurements could be used again for design.
Rijksstudio Breeding Show
6 December 2017 15:13:51 by
Manetta
WdKA Student project: What if anyone could use, re-use, remix and share images of the Dutch Masters?
This is my border, this is my space
2 November 2018 13:00:46 by
Manetta
WdKA Student project: Consider how many doors you have to pass through from the street to your bedroom. Every door is an opening to a different space; it's one step closer to your most private area: your bed.
2 November 2018 13:00:39 by
Manetta
WdKA Student project: At the moment Thuiszorg Rotterdam (Homecare Rotterdam) is facing the problem of their clients refusing home care. This leads to situations where people are being moved into nursing homes, even though they are physically and mentally able to live independently.
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