Building Bridges through Prototyping: a Visual Mapping of a Transdisciplinary Design Research Process on Youth Participation in Urban Planning
Emilia Knabe (1), Stefanie Buhr (2)
(1) University of the Arts Berlin/University of Applied Sciences Potsdam; (2) State Capital of Potsdam
emilia.knabe@fh-potsdam.de
The contribution presents a visualization of a transdisciplinary design research process with the aim of involving more young people in decision-making processes such as city planning through the use of design methods. For this, pupils, teachers, municipal staff, and a design researcher collaboratively developed a workshop kit to encourage youth participation in urban planning. The research follows a "research through design" approach, the development of the workshop kit being research subject and object of the research at the same time. Throughout the process, design methods were considered epistemic tools that facilitate negotiation, reflection, and social learning.
The visualization maps the complex co-design process, focusing not on the final product but on the relational dynamics that shaped it. Informed by theories of bricolage and boundary negotiation, gigamapping is used to illustrate actor interactions, methodological bridges, and emergent insights across institutional boundaries. The visualization reveals the potential of design methods as an intermediary practice that enables alignment and dispute across conflicting value systems in administration, education, and youth culture. The contribution intends to offer methodological insights and possibly open new pathways for researchers and practitioners seeking to initiate inclusive participatory processes in complex municipal settings.
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Memory Shells: Reconnecting Lebanese Youth to Lost National Belonging and Memory
Mariane Meshaka
IE University (Alumni), Spain; marianemeshaka@gmail.com
Even after the end of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the symbolic divisions established by military barricades remained in Lebanon's architectural, political, and social landscapes, reinforcing the degradation of Lebanese society along sectarian and religious divisions to this day. The October 2019 Uprising marked an unprecedented moment of national unity in which people came together regardless of political or religious affiliations. As a main stage for the Uprising and with several threats to its existence, ‘the Egg’, an abandoned cinema, has rebirthed into a symbol of resistance, revolution, and reclamation in Beirut. Located on the former green line that separated Muslim West from Christian East during the Civil War, the Egg is the optimal platform for connecting the Lebanese war generation, post-war generation, and artisans through traditional crafts and memories to reclaim national cultural tools. By rehabilitating the Egg, “Memory Shells” aims to reimagine it as a place for intercommunal interactions and heritage preservation to rekindle lost national belonging and facilitate collective memory rebuilding in the long term.\
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Bubbles Bubbles
Students of The MA Design @ HSLU
A bubble is never innocent.
It seduces with comfort, belonging, and expertise.
But it also blinds, isolates, and traps.
To design, to think critically means refusing to stay lulled inside; it means bursting, crossing, and contaminating bubbles — even at the cost of discomfort — so that knowledge, community, and creativity remain alive, unsettled, and in motion.
The MA Design first-year students bring their own bubbles to the conference. Fresh to the campus, they will step straight into the Social Design Network Conference 2025. Entering the “Social Design bubble” as newcomers, they will listen, observe, and engage in conversations, exploring its many perspectives. Their task: to translate these encounters into texts, images, sounds, or performances that connect across bubbles and spark new dialogues.
