Due to their unique mindset and skills, designers are particularly apt to facilitate transformation processes in Living Labs, especially those that have social innovation as a goal. However, existing literature geared to the practice field runs short when designers interested in taking on such facilitation …

Today’s applied design researchers are where the action is. They have always operated as a catalyst of change: propelling and steering design and society into brighter futures. But now, more than ever, design researchers teamup with a broad range of stakeholders to get things done. They surround themselves …

Municipalities collaborate with citizens to find locally adapted ways to deal with the energy transition. Industry clusters work together with regional governments and knowledge institutions to develop and test new sustainable materials. Universities co-create with students and industry to find a more …

What are the lessons that applied design researchers can take away from this book? What suggestions and recommendations can be derived from the experiences presented in the preceding chapters? On the one hand, it is clear that working with Living Labs offers unique opportunities to address some of society’s …

The boundary object we consider is a boundary spanning practice tied to a specific location, namely the open lab – hence the title ‘The Open Lab as a Boundary Object’. We approach the question if an open lab as a place that can operate as a boundary object that fosters intersectionality, malleability, …

Experimental learning and innovation environments, such as living labs, field labs, and urban innovation labs, are increasingly used to connect multistakeholders in envisioning, creating, experimenting, learning, and trying out novel responses to diverse societal challenges. With designers facilitating …

Research collaboration between practitioners and research professionals aims to develop both practice and knowledge. However, a tension can arise between these objectives: to preserve local relevance, the content, form, and timing of data collection may vary between cases, complicating the comparability …

How does defamiliarization relate to that which it assumes to be familiar? This chapter explores this question in the context of toxicity, an often invisible and imperceptible power, with the aid of two case studies from landscape art. Wout Berger’ s work Giflandschap (Poisoned Landscape, 1992) is exemplary …

The diverse European landscape of climate consciousness is shaped by political values, financial constraints, and country-specific point of view. The aim of the study was to unravel age-specific ecological awareness, forms of engagement, and perceptions, contributing to a nuanced understanding of climate …

Physical and social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic had the potential to jeopardize health and well-being of older adults. Especially older adults who lived alone faced challenges due to restrictive COVID-19 measures. In this study, we explored views and support needs to maintain health …