CoDesign for Equitable Living Environments (CoDELE) Research Area

The research area aims to develop, test, and apply practice-based methods and tools using co-design in order to promote equitable transition and transformation of the built and living environment.

It integrates research and education through critical pedagogy and design activism to generate positive impact on society, guiding the next generation of change-makers to move beyond the sustainability norm.

The focus is on topics such as resilient, circular and future-oriented design, real-world prototyping, serious games, dialogue tools, and visualization techniques embracing digital and analogue spheres.

Our research

The research area focuses on shaping and transforming space while addressing the complexity of current challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and socio-economic injustice. This requires embracement of a beyond sustainability approach in the planning and design of the built environment where architects are not seen as the sole and unique shapers of the built environment but are rather part of a network of actors and stakeholders. This stresses social and ethical responsibility, conscious and critical engagement of society, and requires multistakeholder participation in design processes in which stakeholders from different backgrounds and disciplines learn together and/or from each other when exposed to Co-Design processes.

Our specific research challenges have been formulated through the following research questions:

How can equitable living environments be co-designed through practice-based research and stakeholder engagement?

We focus on method development through three lenses: visual, physical, and collaborative.

(VISUAL) How can visualization and analogue/digital tools be used to obtain and convey data to effectively communicate and support decision making at different stages of co-design processes?

(PHYSICAL) How can novel test beds and real-world prototyping scenarios effectively catalyze action, innovation, and engagement?

(COLLABORATIVE) How can dialogue methods/tools, design activism, and participatory action research be applied to ensure inclusive co-design and collaborative pedagogies?