SOCIO-TECHNICAL DESIGN FOR TRANSFORMATIVE URBANISM

[vc_row][vc_column][vcex_spacing][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The aim of this DASP course is to discuss action-research in the design field as the means to reframe socio-technical aspects of urban challenges.
As a practice, design activity delves into man-made things (defined in literature as what characterises material culture and/or the artificial world). The designer is concerned with both how things are and how they ought to be in order to attain goals and to function. Therefore, being related to the social definition of goals and functioning, design problems are recognised as ill-defined, ill-structured, or “wicked” [Simon, 1996 (1968); Rittel & Webber, 1973]. In this light, design has been conceptualised also as a specific approach to reasoning: “Design has its own distinct ‘things to know, ways of knowing them, and ways of finding out about them’” and places at its core the language of “modelling” [Cross, 1982]. We adopt here the definition of research-by-design as actions of defining, redefining, and challenging the problem-as-given mindset – from the early stages of problem setting throughout the transformative attitude by which problems are addressed, up to the test and evaluation of possible applications.

The course builds on the activities of FULL-Future Urban Legacy Lab, that aims to provide knowledge and action in the field of relevant global urban challenges and support to local decision-making processes. The ambition is for FULL to establish a model of research practice that can be transferred to advanced education at POLITO.

Important dates:

7th June | 9.30-12.30
Introductory seminar
Location: Future Urban Legacy Lab. Toolbox (via Agostino da Montefeltro, 2), Torino, IT

Itinerant workshop:

22nd June | 14.00-18.00
Bouwmeester maître architecte (BMA) with Tania Vandenbroucke and Julie Collet
Location: Laboratory of BMA, Brussels, BE

23rd-24th June
“Observing Research by Design in Action” with Ivo De Jeu of IABR
Guided visit to IABR with Floris Alkemade
Field Exploration of M4H+ area
Location: Laboratory IABR, Rotterdam, NL

Date To Be Defined, July
Final wrap-up
Location: Torino, IT[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]