CODESIGN WORKSHOP IN BEIJING, CHINA

 

In August the Lab went to Beijing to share its methodology with collaborators at the BUPT (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications). The 50+ participants from all walks of life convened at the workshop entitled “Designing Our Ageing Society: Summer CoDesign Workshop 2014”. Besides design students from BUPT and Beijing Institute of Fashion and Technology, researchers from Beijing Research Center of Urban System Engineering and their senior researchers from Haidian Area, a group of older people from the BUPT retired community came together to experience a CoDesign process. They worked in teams, trying to engage the local public to collaboratively come up with different solutions for their community’s future. Focusing on four main themes: Health, Food, Living and Commute, the teams made use of their design skills to imagine possible scenarios. “Play” was highlighted as the central attitude as well as methodology. The teams came up with many promising solutions, with one team setting up a pop-up “photo booth” for strangers to take a “family photo” together; and another designing an offline version of an information exchange platform for healthy diets. 

The teams also took the time to visit the Purple Bamboo Park, located in north-western Beijing, to study the self-initiated ingenious activities by senior Beijingers.