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DESIGNSCAPES MAKES ITS MARK AT COPENHAGEN TECHFESTIVAL

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BY KIRSTEN VAN DAM, SERVICE DESIGN LAB AT AALBORG UNIVERSITY

The Techfestival in Copenhagen is a yearly, non-profit event that explores “human answers to the big questions of technology” welcoming 16,000 visitors to the Danish capital’s iconic Meatpacking District for the 2018 edition.

Over six days, technologists, designers, entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists and artists took part in 200+ activities. On September 5th, the Service Design Lab from Aalborg University organized a workshop entitled “Designing and Innovating Urban Environments,” hosted at Gehl Offices.

The aim of the workshop was to explore innovative solutions in the urban space. With technology emerging as an efficient tool for designing cities, a new range of innovative solutions to those urban challenges has become possible — and the best of such solutions put people first!

So how did we do it? We started with sharing our research and insights on the Designscapes project to the audience. An audience was an interesting mix of architects, practitioners, designers, entrepreneurs, technologists and scientists. Questions such as: “what is Design Enabled Innovation (DEI) in the city” and “what do we intend when we speak of ‘meaningful innovation’” were discussed. Findings of the Designscapes book Innovation Capacity and the City: the enabling role of design were also discussed, as well as some highlights on the work of the city snapshots as inspiration for new project proposals. After this, we facilitated a workshop where the people could explore their perspectives on DEI and help guide them on submitting ideas for the Designscapes Open Call.

 

Photos: Anna Hyvärinen

During this meet-up, more then 50 people came, listened and exchanged ideas about solving urbanization-related challenges. We shared our Designscapes research and had interesting discussions of how best to use design tools, methods and thinking for creating a true source of value for people living in cities. We received a lot of interest in the Open Call, which was shared amongst the participants and first ideas were set to be submitted.