Izzie Zahorian’s Post

We invited designers and professors Talitha Liu and Lexi Tsien, cofounders of Soft-Firm, to share about their experience leading a research-based and community-forward architectural practice in New York. What is community engagement for you in architecture?   For us, community engagement is a spatial practice that allows for self-determination. We’ve been inspired by storefronts in Chinatowns where the insides of stores are turned outside on the street, domesticating urban life and the margin of the sidewalk. We think about the embedded intelligence in simple objects to define a commons. We often reference the lo-fi plastic stool – stackable and lightweight, but able to redefine a space very quickly. In the ideal, our projects support multiple different groups and individuals over the day, seasons, years. Community engagement turns plazas into ballrooms and parks into urban living rooms.    How do you incorporate community engagement into your design process?   We see our designs as a toolkit for the public. Our urban installations are reconfigurable to host performances, protests, screenings, and more intimate gatherings…armatures for the public to add meaning over time. Design is not complete at installation. Where architecture is the intersection of culture and built infrastructure, community engagement is essential to make design come to life.    How can architects and designers engage with their local communities?   As architects and designers we need to humble ourselves to the knowledge of the communities we build with and in. We listen and learn first, understand what the most pressing issues are, and identify opportunities for activation, repair, adaptation, and reuse. We define “public” or “constituent” in partnership with clients, and through that conversation try to shape a response that is sensitive to context. We hope our engagement not only strengthens a community but builds new connections. Photo: Mary Kang

How to gain best value when design is increasingly used to develop public services? sampsa hyysalo, Kaisa Savolainen, Antti Pirinen, Tuuli Mattelmäki, Päivi Hietanen, and Meri Virta offer an articulate up-to-date exploration of design and what it is in public-sector organizations. They discuss how public sector administration understands, misunderstands, and uses it. Six broad clusters of design are presented – design in the built environment; design in the organization’s development; design know-how and training; design in participation and collaborative work; and design in strategy and branding work – with 23 different design activities. This solid case study will interest those following how design is changing and how it is used to facilitate change in organizations and cities. More from here 📕 The Design Journal and Taylor & Francis Group #publicsector #servicedesign #humancentereddesign

🌟 Seeking Your Expertise and Insights! Join Our Co-Design Workshop on the Future of Mobility 🌍🚉 Dear LinkedIn Community, I’m reaching out to invite you to a special co-design workshop that is a critical part of my thesis project for the Master's in Design at Royal College of Art's Design Futures Program. As I explore the future of mobility in London by 2050, I am seeking the collaboration and wisdom of professionals and enthusiasts in fields such as futures studies, urban planning, transportation design, intelligent mobility, and systemic design. 📅 Event: Co-Design Workshop on the Future of Mobility in London, UK 🗓️ Date: 29 June 2024 📍 Location: Online (via Zoom) This workshop will be divided into two key parts: 1. Discussion on 4 Alternative Future Scenarios: We'll explore positive, progressive, and pragmatic visions that consider various impacts of ecological and technological drivers for mobility in the city of London. 2. Envisioning Innovations, Systems, and Infrastructures: Together, we will brainstorm and develop ideas for the innovations and systems that could emerge and thrive within these scenarios. I am genuinely excited about the potential of this workshop, but I can't do it alone. Your knowledge and experience would be invaluable in shaping meaningful and realistic future scenarios. 🔗 Why Your Participation Matters: - Your insights will contribute to a vital academic research project. - Help envision and shape future mobility solutions. - Connect and collaborate with like-minded professionals. 🔐 Ethical Information Use and Credit: I assure you that your contributions will be used ethically and solely for academic purposes. All participants will receive full credit for their ideas and insights shared during the workshop. 📝 How to Join: If you’re interested and available to help, please get in touch with me and I'll be happy to share more details. Thank you so much for considering this invitation. Your participation would mean the world to me and significantly enhance the depth and impact of this research. With gratitude, Trisha Mehta #FutureOfMobility #CoDesignWorkshop #DesignFutures

Traditional school designs face challenges in meeting the demands of contemporary education. In our latest blog, we explore the impact of outdated structures and the benefits of embracing modern architectural approaches. From fostering collaborative spaces to addressing well-being and integrating technology, the future of education lies in innovative designs. 🔗 Read more on our website: https://lnkd.in/egB2Ahaj #ModernEducation #InnovativeDesigns #ShapingTheFuture

From her early days as an architecture student, Betsy Ramaccia has pursued one foundational question: How can people have agency in the decisions that shape their lives? As a young architect, she started asking more questions about the purpose and function of design: Who is it for? What rights—and responsibilities—does a design credential bestow? How should designers use the power to shape and create ethically? These questions led Betsy to rural Alabama, where she spent several years working as a design fellow for a housing nonprofit. “I was designing spaces for people who had very different life experiences than I had,” she shares. “It felt like common sense to create a collaborative process so they had input into our final designs. I called this ‘community engagement,’ but I was doing design research without knowing it.” Betsy transitioned from designing individual homes into a series of roles where she was able to effect change on a macro level, designing systems, policies, and social services programs, always looking through the lens of how people engage with them. Now, as Director of Design Research at Coforma, she advocates for an expanded definition of design and design research and for these disciplines to become more relevant in issue areas that impact people and the planet. “The design process can be a powerful resource for informing not just products but the services, organizational designs, and policies that precede them,” Betsy says. “It can also be a means for creating more equitable systems, inclusive communities, and empathetic, responsive leaders.” If you also believe in harnessing the power of design and technology to improve lives, visit our website to learn more about our impact-driven work: https://lnkd.in/gjuJAH7N. #DigitalDesign #TechForGood #CoformaCulture

The challenges of designing effective wayfinding for healthcare facilities are considerable. As with other commercial building projects—whether it’s a hotel, airport, university campus, or big-box retailer—the goal is to guide users to what they’re looking for, where they need to be, as seamlessly and pleasantly as possible. In healthcare, however, add to that a heightened state of anxiety over their health or that of the loved one they’re accompanying. Consider the diversity of those using the space in terms of age, culture, socioeconomic status, education, and the full gamut of physical and mental abilities. In the face of many challenges, Healthcare Design spoke with healthcare designers from a variety of firms to find out some of the common principles they rely on to develop successful wayfinding programs. https://bit.ly/3SG4rSF #wayfinding #wayfindingprograms #DBEsystems #integratedtechnology #HealthcareDesignMagazine

Our annual Gensler #DesignForecast2024 highlights eight meta trends shaping architecture and design this coming year. These ideas and insights extend across our 33 practices globally in #cities, lifestyle, health, and work. Here's an excerpt from the #Education section: With a focus on the student experience, institutions are prioritizing community and belonging, which includes diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hybrid learning is becoming a permanent fixture, but many institutions still face challenges developing the right learning models, technologies, and environments. #gensler #educationtrends https://lnkd.in/dTsyp49S

A great visit today to Google Accessibility Disvovery Centre. Hosted by Hans Zimmermann and organised by Alona De Havilland for some of the Shaw Trust Power 100 2023 finalists. I’m sure some of my fellow visitors like Carrie-Ann Lightley will share their experiences, so I’m going to raise awareness of a different subject. The office of Google is in the reasonably new St Pancras Square development. The pieces of the office that I saw it’s pretty accessible but like many firms they lease, rather than own the space. During our meeting, I asked a question about automated doors within the building. The meeting room we were in had one, but the door from the left lobby to the floor was heavy and unautomated. The answer was that being a leased building present challenges. So, constructors building these places and the owners need to start thinking more about designing inclusion in. Not just acccess, but gender inclusive loos, larger floor plates for circulation and height adjustable desks, multiple faith rooms, multiple returning parents rooms and way way more. Many organisations like Google are striving for accessibility and inclusion, but it appears construction are not supporting the cause.

I always appreciate how HKS puts people first in their architecture and design projects. I watched HKS in action through leading innovation in Patient Centered Design in Healthcare, and was intrigued by this article highlighting how they are disrupting Senior Living. We need to do better by our seniors and this is the way to do it. Empathy and evidence based design. https://lnkd.in/guYHy-vq