Inclusive design + social innovation : a methodology and case studies = Kapsayıcı tasarım + sosyal inovasyon : metodoloji ve örnek çalışmalar

Abstract

Design contributes to social innovation due to its potential to frame and solve complex problems. However, because of the multi-dimensional nature of the problems that the world encounters today, designers require to collaborate with various stakeholders and develop new skills to trigger, support or manage social innovation. In this respect, inclusivity is an important phenomenon to focus on, because designers’ responsibility is to provide equity that results in social integrity through the participation of diverse communities within the society. Therefore, today’s design inevitably requires more collaborations to build capacity to respond to future challenges effectively. This also puts emphasis on design education, which requires new approaches to educate responsible designers of the future. With these intentions, “Sustaining inclusive design collaborations through co-design platforms (SIDe programme)” has been carried out in collaboration with the School of Design and Creative Arts of Loughborough University (UK) and the Faculty of Architecture of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (TR). The project is supported by the British Council through Newton Fund, Research Environment Links UK-Turkey Programme, and aims to create a mechanism which will support collaborations on inclusive design research and education that can be carried out sustainably. It covers stakeholders from many different areas, including non-governmental organisations, policymakers, local governments, private sectors, design educators and students. The project objectives included: To increase awareness of inclusive design by creating a comprehensive resource. To create a collaborative design mechanism and introduce a curriculum approach for university students to engage with inclusive design. To develop an online platform to encourage the communication and share of inclusive design knowledge and good practices. There are five associate partners of this project from Turkey and the UK; i.e. the Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds, The Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey, FixEd, Cambridge Engineering Design Centre and the Design Research Society, which cover different types of organisations from education to research, as well as organisations that work in the disability sector. The project resulted in a collaboration model between universities and NGOs and a web-platform to build and sustain effective collaborations, making their process and results visible to other stakeholders. This book embodies the unique perspectives of different types of partners involved in the SIDe project and presents its outcomes. The first four chapters provide academic perspectives on inclusive design, co-creation, social innovation, and social responsibility by distinguished authors from four universities, i.e., University of Cambridge, Kingston University London, Brunel University London, and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Chapter 5-7 focus on the SIDe project, its collaboration model that links Universities and NGOs for effective partnership on inclusive design projects through design education, and the reflections of the partners involved with whom the framework was tested. The last part of the book presents 14 inclusive design projects, as the design outcome of the SIDe collaboration framework, which involved 56 design students and four tutors with different backgrounds (industrial design, interior architecture, architecture, and city and regional planning), and two partner organisations in Turkey (the Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds and the Spinal Cord Paralytics Association of Turkey). At the end of this book, a comprehensive list of resources on inclusive design can be found focussing on different aspects of inclusive design and accessibility. As the SIDe project team from the UK and Turkey, we hope this book will provide a case and method suggestion to build capacity for social innovation through sustaining effective inclusive design collaborations with different types of stakeholders and will inspire readers and help raise awareness on the importance of inclusive design spanning different scales.