Autor: nikolettatemelkou

Eight years ago I worked at Emmen Center and now I study at Viscosistadt. Nevertheless, I can’t say that I have explored the Emmen area more deeply. Since I am currently thinking about moving to Emmen over my study period (for convenience and more affordable rent than in my current place of residence Rotkreuz), the task of exploring Emmen comes just in time. This week I had two apartment viewings.

The way to the first apartment led me across Emmen. Walking through Gerliswilstrasse, feels like being abroad. It is multi cultural, noisy and the environment is poorly maintained and dirty. Being Greek, I’m used to colorful and noisy areas and I like them too. However, I would not choose this street as a place to live. The further I walked, the more diverse the buildings became. It is not only a cultural mix but also a mix of very different buildings. And so different were the two apartments I visited. The neighborhood of the first apartment was rather gloomy, not well maintained but close to nature. The area was deserted, although there were countless apartment blocks there. On the contrary, the second apartment. It was located on the opposite side of Emmen. The area was highly modern and clean. There were children playing and adults talking. Is there a community in Emmen after all? It fascinated me that neighborhoods a few minutes apart could be so different.

There is definitely something going on in Emmen. There is a lot of change going on and accordingly, you see a lot of construction sites, which deteriorate the image of Emmen. It is known that Emmen has a bad reputation in the surrounding society. However, when I look at the new neighborhoods, I see Emmen’s potential to prove its reputation wrong in the future.

 

Author: Nikoletta Temelkou

After our two classes, I realized that social design plays an important role in almost every project as a design manager. It made me think about what social design means for me as a future design manager. One of my aspirations is to create opportunities for a valuable impact on people. Often, I realized that the potential of people can be diminished because of poor design. Because people were not given a priority. Products, homes, organizations, neighborhoods, cities, education, politics, and workspaces were not designed for people; even though they depend on people. We, the designer, create and influence the behavior of people with everything that we design. That includes not only environments but also interactions between people. That is why I hold the opinion that social design creates cultures. And culture shapes values. And the values determine the future.

Social design is designing for society and with society. But what does that mean and how can we achieve that?

Designing for society

Designing for society means designing how we live within environments and how we interact. Therefore, we require interdisciplinary teamwork. We need experts that are experienced in a specific discipline. Our current project “MUNICIPAL” is about energy issues, which requires expertise in energy to make a significant change possible. Despite the initial insecurity within the energy topic, I realized that design management is exactly what our current project and social design need. The project “MUNICIPAL” requires us to connect the energy issues with the municipality and the members of the public. Design Managers know how to connect different things with purpose. Furthermore, designers know how to communicate changes in an understandable way and connect with people – this is crucial to make the people approve, support, and adapt to valuable changes long-term.

Designing with society

Designing with society means including the member of the public. Therefore, we require citizen experts. People, that are experienced in living or working in a specific community or place. Those people know more about what it is like to live or work in their communities than the designer ever will. They know about their needs and aspirations and the successes and the failures. The designer needs to make space and include the member of the public and citizen experts so that they can share their knowledge. I believe that people need to be encouraged to share their knowledge because they might not feel empowered to see their opinions or thoughts as expertise that could be valuable in future designs. 

Social Design Theory made me think about the quote “Design won’t save the world. But it sure makes it look good.” 

Design surely makes the world look good. But I partly disagree with the first sentence. Design won’t save the world if we do not use it properly. In the past, we did not. But we, as humans, evolve, and so should our designs. Designers zoom out to understand the full human experience across different contexts, designing for the purposes people are trying to achieve. So, design has already started to change – and eventually, will save the world.