Community Models
The Tangible and Intangible Value of a Design Community: Developing the Identity of Designer Based in the City of Bologna through a Process of Co-designing a Hybrid Community View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ludovica Rosato, Riccardo Mercuri, Simona Colitti
Building communities to develop and consolidate the identity of designers is a crucial aspect of current design research and practice. Design communities serve as catalysts for the co-construction of knowledge, values, relationships, and projects with the goal of promoting sustainable and inclusive professional growth in society. In this context, this paper focuses on a significant case study: the "DZain Community" (DZC) in Bologna, Italy. The DZC is a dynamic network composed of students, alumni, researchers and professionals related to the design context in the Emilia-Romagna Region. This community was created with the intent to address the specific needs of designers and contribute to the co-construction of identity in the territory and then globally. In the paper, we will examine in detail the operating model of the DZC and its initiatives aimed at promoting sustainability, inclusion and responsibility in design, starting with the experience of co-constructing university spaces where the community came to life during workshop days for the UNIBO Decennial of Design celebrations. The DZC represents a tangible example of how the co-construction of hybrid spaces, relationships, and proximate actions within a design community can contribute significantly to the formation and affirmation of designers' professional identities. Our analysis of the Bologna case study offers a concrete perspective on community co-design strategies in the design context, underscoring the importance of a responsible and inclusive approach to address current challenges in the field.
Designing Gender-responsive Models for Community Development: A Study of Women-led Participatory Grassroots Labs in India View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lakshay Talwar
Mainstreaming of gender in policy and development design in developing countries like India has consistently seen complex challenges. As the country prospers economically, leveraging innovative policy and social designs to integrate women from marginalised and vulnerable communities as active agents in the development process has been a struggle. Women often find themselves as passive recipients of gender-linked social welfare schemes, credit facilities for income-generating work, and other public participation activities. While policy tables have extended their space to women as a stakeholder group in consultative roles, the outcomes of such consultations have been far removed from what participatory and human-centred designs can do to be more gender-responsive. This research chronicles a three-year-long journey of attempting a more robust participatory approach in designing women-led grassroots labs in low-income settlements in India. The grassroots lab model keeps women’s agency at the core and envisions them as dynamic "solution-makers". It emphasizes principles of co-creation and co-designing to increase women’s economic and civic participation in slums and urban villages. This paper presents reflections, dilemmas and insights on what participatory design can do to shape women-led community models with scalable development trajectories.
Incubator Services of Urban Circular Economies View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Chiara Olivastri, Giovanna Tagliasco
Cities can be seen as a source of services, supply chains and processes where numerous business models and products are developed, which can be controlled and rethought from the circular economy point of view. The focus is on two main targets, citizens and companies, as two major entities who play a key role within the urban ecosystem, activating different dynamics and strategies. This paper examines the C-city PON METRO research, based on European Urban Agenda funds for the cohesion recovery provided within the Next Generation EU and defined in the Italian portion of ReactEU. The city is conceived as an energy catalyst, the project aims to address the circular economy through three macro-processes: eco-design, long-use and reuse. The first output is the Circular Desk: a digital service and an incubator of circular economy actions, which aims to connect agencies and companies. A place where arrange meetings between demand and supply of solutions and practices to drive circular economy strategies. The exchange is the element on which the second action realised within C-city also works: with the creation of the new reuse and repair centre, a former abandoned market transformed into a new function for the neighborhood. In this centre users can exchange goods, bringing objects they no longer need and giving them a second chance. In this centre, the intangible exchange of knowledge and know-how is also practised through workshops, meetings and repair space registered as the first Repair Café.
