RTD2: Bridging Research and Practice

Evaluating RTD collaborations


  • CIRCULAR SOCIETY
  • DESIGN FOR CHANGE
  • KEY ENABLING METHODOLOGY
  • EXPO

In 2016 nine design projects within the programme ‘Research through Design’ started to explore the nature of design as a research method. After two years the projects are coming to an end. Join the project leaders in exciting round table discussions on the merits of doing ‘research through design'! Artefacts from the different projects will be at the heart of this conversation and dedicated exhibition. The ‘Research through Design’ programme is funded by NWO and SIA.

A selection of project leaders and researchers involved in one of the RTD projects form a panel and will reflect on a theme regarding ‘research through design’. During an interactive discussion the audience can join in the discussion with their questions and remarks.
Theme to be announced.

Topics

  • What is a good division of roles in the cooperation between research universities and university of applied sciences? And for the cooperation between researchers and stakeholders?
  • In what ways has ‘practice' been involved in the RTD projects? What role has it played?

Research Through Design Projects

Smart clothing for thermal control of the human body
New and innovative solutions for clothing which can actively control our body temperature are created by combining different heating and cooling technologies with sensors and actuators, while integrating these in new smart clothing prototypes.

Resourceful Ageing
This approach moves away from the idea of the elderly as frail, passive and technologically incompetent, a sterotype that underlies much of today’s healthcare technology. Instead, this project promotes a view of the elderly as being extremely capable of creatively dealing with the everyday challenges they encounter as they age.

Double Face 2.0
Few architectural works draw aesthetic advantage from technical aspects; technology is often seen as a constraint limiting creativity rather than inspiring principles that become part of the design identity. With the design of the novel type of Trombe wall system, we aimed to combine a high technical performance witht its engineering performances, demonstrating the value of an integrated design identity.

Symbiotic Machines for Space Exploration
Symbiotic Machines for Space Exploration are autonomous structures that will make a meaningful contribution to the stabilization of endangered ecosystems, conservation of biodiversity and creation of a new environment, focusing on environments with a huge concentration of carbon dioxide.

Beyond the Current
Many design solutions are produced without paying much attention to the architectural and cultural heritage quality, as well as not researching consumer preferences and means. These aspects are of increasingly important when designing non-row housing, particularly in the larger cities. This proposal aims to generate design solutions for the deep renovation of representative parts of the more complex housing stock, to increase both energy efficiency and architectural quality.

Mycelium-based materials for product design
How can we improve and standardise the technical and experiential qualities of naturally grown, mycelium materials? Depending on the chosen combination of fungal culture, substrate and post-treatment, a range of mycelium-based materials embedding different properties can be created, demonstrating the wide applicative potential of responsible bio-fabricated materials and highlighting the pivotal role of designers as agents of change

Really cooling water bodies in cities
Urban heat problems will be exacerbated and peak rain fall will increase: these predicted climate problems need to be resolved quickly. By studying configurations of shading, evaporation and ventilation objects around bodies of water, we can improve ‘human thermal sensation in cities’

Tools to Support Thinking about Personal Futures
Local government, service providers, and individuals are increasingly expected to be responsible for their own futures. In this project, newly developed tools will enable individuals to create images of their own future, and use these when discussing and developing their options, arrangements, and plans, either alone and/or with personal and professional relations.

Participatory City Making
This new city making process is not only about bringing various disciplines together that address urban developments, but foremost seeks to establish a collaborative effort of defining a new way of working between professional designers, academics, policy makers and citizens.

Christine de Lille
Moderator

Christine De Lille

Christine De Lille leads the Innovation Networks research group at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. They aim at designing systems by Research through Design in three contexts: retail, food and mobility. Christine also works at Delft University of Technology.

PeterVanWaart gj18small
Participatory City Making

Peter van Waart

Peter van Waart (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences), lecturer Multimedia Design, researcher Smart and Inclusive Society. PhD-candidate at TU Delft on design methods for meaningful technology in the urban domain. He initiated Rotterdam Open Data, Participatory City Making, OnsBlok, minor Urban Interaction Design, Global Service Jam Rotterdam, Rotterdam GovJam and International IoT Day Rotterdam.

Maurizio Montalti portrait4 ©Officina Corpuscoli
Mycelium

Maurizio Montalti

Maurizio Montalti is founder and Creative Director at Officina Corpuscoli (Amsterdam, NL), as well as co-founder and Director of R&D at Mogu (Inarzo, IT). He works as Research Associate at Design Academy Eindhoven as part of the Places and Traces Readership. His research in the field of bio-fabricated materials is highly focused on fungal mycelium, for the creation of viable technologies, processes and products, deriving from the direct cooperation with living/growing systems.

clarine van oel
Beyond the Current

Clarine van Oel

Clarine is an environmental psychologist at the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of TU Delft. She developed the approach used in Beyond the Current project to investigate residential preferences to develop user-tested design models for sustainable renewal.

Kaspar Jansen
Smart Clothing

Kaspar Jansen

Prof. Kaspar M.B. Jansen is full professor and chair of the Emerging Materials group at the Delft University of Technology. His current research focusses on designing with interactive materials and on smart and functional textiles.

Schermafbeelding 2016-10-06 om 10.28.42 PM
Concluding Talk

Kees Dorst

Kees Dorst currently holds the position of Design United professor, looking into the development of Research Through Design methodologies. He is trained as an industrial designer and philosopher, is Professor of Design Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney, and the founder/director of the UTS Design Innovation Research Centre.