Thoughts about on-site design collaboration

Katja Soini | Presenta/on in the course of Design Collabora/on at Aalto University | Helsinki, March 18 2014 © Katja Soini 2014

Lähiö 2072 (Suburb 2072) is a joint project (2012-‐2014) in collabora/on with Aalto University, Vahanen Oy and Helsingin Energia + other project partners, and funded by TEKES

Facilitating redesign of suburban development with collaborative design Finnish suburbs built in the 1960s-‐1970s are now facing extensive renova/on. The issue concerns 1/3 of the Finnish residents inhabi/ng suburbs, and the es/mated total cost is 30-‐50 B€. This demands redesigning the complex sociocultural system to keep up the aﬄuent society in regard to maintaining the quality and value of the housing stock, ﬁgh/ng against segrega/on, and generally mee/ng the diversifying needs.

In polyphonic collaborative design, different views focus to the same point, similar to a kaleidoscope. Black circles refer to the Lähiö 2072 –project partners and white circles iden/fy actors who joined in diﬀerent project ac/vi/es.

More informa/on (mostly in Finnish): hhps://blogs.aalto.ﬁ/lahio2072/ and hhp://issuu.com/lahio2072

The project Lähiö 2072 aims at exploi/ng this inevitable and also unique momentum to achieve the wider eﬀects for sustainable and ethical suburban renova/on and development with the means of collabora/ve design. The main outcome of the project is a collabora/ve development plaeorm for polyphonic and energy-‐eﬃcient renewing of the neighbourhood in the momentum of renova/on.

Design research literature that together compile the on-site design collaboration approach

Generative research for the front end of design

(Design-driven) innovation of meanings

Sanders, Elizabeth & Stappers Pieter Jan. 2012. Convivial toolbox: GeneraCve research for the front end of design. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers

VerganC, Roberto. 2008. Design, meanings, and radical innovaCon: A metamodel and a research agenda. Journal of Product InnovaCon Management 25(5): 436–456 Norman, Donald; VerganC; Roberto. 2014. Incremental and radical innovaCon: Design research vs. technology and meaning change. DesignIssues 30(1): 78-‐96

Constructive design research to apply design ethnography

Empathic design to understand the situations and feelings of another

Koskinen, Ilpo; Zimmerman, John; Binder, Thomas; Redström, Johan; Wensveen, Stephan. 2012. Design research through pracCce: From the lab, ﬁeld and showroom. Waltham: Elsevier

Koskinen, Ilpo; Baearbee, Katja; Maeelmäki, Tuuli. 2003 Emptahic design: User experience in product design. Helsinki: IT Press Maeelmäki, Tuuli; Vaajakallio, Kirsikka; Koskinen, Ilpo. 2014. What happened to empathic design? DesignIssues 30(1): 67-‐77

Participatory innovation to focus to outcomes in addition to process

Co-design as a tool, a mindset, a structure

Buur, Jacob; Mathews, Ben. 2008. ParCcipatory innovaCon. InternaConal Journal of InnovaCon Management 12(3): 255–273

Vaajakallio, Kirsikka. 2012. Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure. Aalto University publicaCon series Doctoral DissertaCons 87/2012

On-site design collaboration approach in Lähiö 2072 emphasises

•  being present – on-site activities •  joining forces – bringing in one’s resources •  co-capability – learning how to collaborate

MESTOILLA-‐ VIDEO COMPETITION

Local democracy

VISUAL COLLABORATION

Management of the limited liability company and tenant democracy SOCIAL SECTOR AND RENOVATION

RESIDENTIAL SPACES MAP OF MELLUNKYLÄ EVENT PRODUCTION

HOUSE HOST(ESS)-‐ TRAINING

KONTULANKAARI 11

MELLUNKYLÄ TIMELINE

CUSTOMISED ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF APARTMENT BUILDING

HOUSE TIMELINE

APARTMENT BUILDING NETWORK BASECAMP D-‐ASEMA AT KONTULA METRO STATION KEINUTIE 5

KONTULANKAARI 2

KURKISUONTIE 11

AVE MELLUNKYLÄ! -piloting was based on collaboration in the apartment building network. Network introduced real estate management and contruction as part of the local grassroots democracy work. To support the network, during the pilot we tested tools and approaches appearing in the picture. More about the pilot (in Finnish): hhp://issuu.com/lahio2072/docs/ave_mellunkyla____-‐pilo/t_-‐_katja_

Tackling collectively the suburban renovation challenge in an apartment building network The AVE MELLUNKYLÄ! -‐pilot mission was to convey everyday dwelling and living experiences and to take ini/a/ves for beher housing and property maintenance in parallel with the mandatory technical renova/on. Residents – regardless to the possession system – enjoyed peer-‐to-‐peer support and were driven by the common aspira/on of good living. The original network of the project Lähiö 2072 comprising of the local democracy group, experts of renova/on, energy management, social work and designing researchers expanded and included now also residents, boards of the limited liability housing companies and housing commihees of city-‐owned rental houses, local building management ﬁrms Kontulan Huolto Oy and Heka Kontula Oy, and the City of Helsinki Environment Centre, who all shared the concern of suburban renova/on and wished to explore the complex sociocultural system in prac/ce.

The winning video ”Lähimestoilla” showed with parkour style the optimistic, multicultural and urban side of the neighbourhood. Video by Markus Maidla, Roni Seppänen, Aleksi Partanen, Jesse Repo, Aaron Bojang ja Erik Mutanen. See video: hhp://kelaamo.ﬁ/ﬁ/Edu/Elokuvat/Elokuvat/?video=2810&iframe=true

The young got their voices heard in suburban development through telling about their everyday in the hoods at Mestoilla video competition 117 young people with 34 videos took part to the Mestoilla compe//on by showing their collec/ve ac/vi/es in favourite gathering places of Mellunkylä, their fears about drugs and intruders popula/ng other places, and visions for the future where loca/ons are in more ac/ve use for the young. Housing and communica/ons minister Pia Viitanen rewarded the prizes at Mellunkylä Democracy Evening. The messages presented in videos as alterna/ve perspec/ves to suburban development were channelled to decision-‐makers and ac/vists in poli/cs, local democracy, city development and repair construc/on business among others. The compe//on was organised in collabora/on with local schools, youth centres and Lähiö 2072 partners. Videos in their locations in Mellunkylä neighbourhood. Videos were shared in a website moderated by Kelaamo community. See all videos: hhp://kelaamo.ﬁ/mestoilla © Katja Soini 2014

Three minutes walk from the Kontula metro station and the neighbourhood’s main shopping mall was the perfect location for the students. Students felt like being at home and established collaboration with appr. 130 local people and the neighbourhood. Design studio in the field was in addition to a collaborative workspace, the place for events such as the WDC weekend and workshops. More informa/on: hhp:// 365wellbeing.aalto.ﬁ/projek/t/suburb-‐2072/

Design studio in the ﬁeld

Trans-disciplinary students dwelled in the suburb to learn how to combine the local everyday life with long-term trends in their societally-aware design concepts The project Suburb 2072 challenged a team of interna/onal trans-‐discplinary and interna/onal students to create a vision of a suburb they’d love to live in 2072. The project was an experiment to combine trend forecas/ng and collabora/ve design methods to tap both major mega trends and everyday aspects in regard to a societal cause of renewing the suburbs. The innova/ve teaching methods included for example dwelling in loci, in a design studio in the ﬁeld. The project was part of 365 Wellbeing that consists of 12 projects represen/ng actual services or processes in the ci/es of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Lah/. 365 Wellbeing is a part of Aalto University’s extensive WDC-‐program called Living+ and the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 ini/a/ve. The student visions on the suburb of Mellunkylä as an oasis of good living was used as one of the star/ng points in the project Lähiö 2072.

What to do when want to do on-site design collaboration? Go to the people, do not expect that they will come to you Residents generally need to have an extremely good reason to come and join your acCviCes. Go and meet people in their “natural surroundings”. Take your parters with you.

Learn to communicate like locals do The common language – whether spoken or visual – is found in interacCon with local people. Take every opportunity to learn how to communicate your ideas; what resonates with people.

Keep everybody up to date on the progress of the project

Be prepared for the unexptected twists in the project schedule

Your acCviCes probably takes a lot of Cme; let your companions – residents, local acCvists, company representaCves and other partners – know what it is goint to happen next. That allows then to book schedule and prepare themselves mentally for acCCviCes.

It doesn’t maeer how well you prepare the project, yourself and your partners, you will face surprises on-‐site. You will meet surprising situaCons, unexpected people and subject. Keep your ﬂexible enough to be responsive with these suprises.

Use your personality Working locally, on-‐site, means that you need to expand your typical professional role. You have an excellent opportunity to apply the variety of skills. By being yourself you will encounter people more genuinely.

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Thoughts about on-site design collaboration

Published on Mar 31, 2014

Lähiö 2072 -yhteishanke

On-site design collaboration explores complex sociocultural issues, such as the suburban renewal in the renovation momentum, with the means of design. The approach, being focused in the complex design objective and situated in the front end of design, emphasises social change management: people need to change their behaviour so that the new visions would become adopted. Designers mastering the on-site design collaboration approach need to assure that in addition to co-creating design outcomes such as models, systems, strategies, concepts, services or products, the outcomes are being adopted and diffused within the system they were designed for. During the co-creation process, therefore, the growing network of people and organisations are being couched and encouraged to continue self-imposed activities beyond the project activities.