design med omtanke.pdf

Design Med Omtanke: Participation and

sustainability in the design of public sector

buildings

otaland, Sweden

Georgina Holden and Claudia Eckert, Department of Design, Development,

Environment and Materials, Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and

Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK

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astra Gotaland, Sweden that has been successfully used for public

sector building projects. The approach uses participatory design techniques

alongside sustainable design, to design public spaces that meet stakeholder

requirements, using sustainable products and materials. The paper reviews

participatory design literature and positions the work described in relation to

this. The context of the work is discussed and examples show the scalability of

the approach. The conclusion is that the approach described can overcome

problems frequently experienced by novice clients and can successfully be used

to achieve sustainability objectives in a wide range of settings.

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Keywords: design process, user participation, built environment,

environmental design, participatory design

hilst there is much written about participatory design (PD), the use

of PD to achieve sustainability targets has not been widely

addressed in the academic literature outside the context of urban

planning ( Mitlin & Thompson, 1995; Toker, 2007 ). This article presents

a descriptive account of an approach to the design of public sector buildings

that combines participatory design techniques alongside sustainable design to

achieve integrated, holistic design outcomes. The research presented addresses

the question of how designers might be enabled to assimilate and articulate

user requirements whilst educating users about sustainable solutions. Also ad-

dressed is the question of how to communicate design possibilities in an accessi-

bleway, as discussedbyLuck in the context of buildingdesign ( Luck, 2003; Luck,

2007; Luck, Haenlein, & Bright, 2001 ). In 2000 Bob Fowles wrote:

Corresponding author:

Georgina Holden

g.m.holden@open.ac.

“When architects incorporate user and community participation in the

design and development process, whilst at the same time embracing an

ecological agenda, there evolves a strengthening of social sustainability as

well as increasing sustainability in the physical environment.” ( Fowles, 2000 )

www.elsevier.com/locate/destud

0142-694X $ - see front matter Design Studies 32 (2011) 235

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doi: 10.1016/j.destud.2010.11.002

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Birgitta Nilsson and Barbro Peterson, Design Med Omtanke,

astra G

This paper discusses a participatory design approach developed by Design med

Omtanke in V

The approach discussed bears out this contention and oﬀers a process that

has the potential for widespread adoption and use.

Public participation in design has long been discussed and debated in Design

Journals. In 1971 Design Participation was the topic of the Design Research

Society Conference ( Cross, 1972 ). Stringer (1972) presented a paper setting

out a rationale for participation, calling for radical redeﬁnition of design

and planning, whilst Matchett and Williams (1972) set out agendas and a pro-

cess for multi-stakeholder team involvement in the design process. In the very

ﬁrst issue of Design Studies Johnson (1979) took up this debate and set out the

‘myths of participation in design’ arguing that participatory design (PD)

is fundamentally political and describing a project in Glasgow in which tenants

participated in the redesign of tenement courtyards. Johnson’s contention was

that participatory design demands that designers become sympathetic educa-

tors in their engagement with the user group.

The view of designer as facilitator in design projects with lay users is echoed by

many writers ( Foque & Lammineur, 1995; Oberdorfer, 1988; Sanoﬀ, 1990 ). A

number of issues around participatory design are discussed and resolved, at

least in part, in the academic literature. Key concerns include the potential ne-

gation or limitation of the designer’s expertise and creativity; lack of design

language and understanding from participants ( Lawrence, 1982; Luck, 2003,

2007 ); limitations on the scope of participants’ input and inﬂuence on the

design ( Lawrence, 1982; Reich Konda, Monarch, Levy, & Subrahmanian,

1996; Wulz, 1986 ); competing perspectives from diﬀerent stakeholders

( Kernohan, 1981; Lawrence, 1982 ); the need for designers to develop new ca-

pacities to enable them to ‘respond to the complex nature of the relationships

between people and the built environment’ ( Lawrence, 1982 ).

Sanoﬀ proposes playful, visually rich techniques and methods to engage users

and describes a number of community projects in which these methods have

been successfully used. Other design practitioners record similar experiences

and the use of workshops at the earliest stages of a design project can be

seen as a common approach ( Oberdorfer, 1988; Sanoﬀ, 1981, 1990, 2000,

2007; Teymur, 2002 ). Thackara (2007) describes the use of visual communica-

tion and workshops for DOTT 07 where a co-design process was used to

redesign public services in the north-east of England and the designer’s role

was to facilitate collaborative activity. This project, funded by the Design

Council and regional development agency is indicative of the way in which

participatory design has moved, from alternative counter-culture to the

acceptable and publicly funded mainstream ( Toker, 2007 ). However, the

caveat is that in the public sector, participation is more commonly found at

the lower levels of Wulz’s hierarchy ( Figure 1 ), with co-decision and self-deci-

sion remaining relatively rare forms of public participation ( Wulz, 1986 ).

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Design Studies Vol 32 No. 3 May 2011

Figure 1 Summary of Wulz

(1986) , levels of participation

showing decision making and

participants

In the approach discussed, user participation has the characteristics of

co-design ( King, Merinda, Latimer, & Ferrari, 1989 ) with users involved in

visualisation and decision making throughout the design process. Crucial to

the approach is the role of an independent facilitator who adopts the role of

sustainability champion. This coupled with the expertise of the design team

and knowledge of empathic, user-centred, design ( Leonard & Rayport,

1997; Norman, 2002 ) inclusive design ( Clarkson, Coleman, Hosking, &

Waller, 2003; Langdon, Clarkson, & Robinson, 2008; Preiser & Ostroﬀ,

2001 ) and design for sustainability, ( Dewberry & Goggin, 1996; Thorpe,

2007 ) leads to successful interpretation and realisation of the user and client

needs.

1 Methodology

Nilsson and Petersen, authors of the paper, are key members of the Design

Med Omtanke (DMO) team, and have developed and used the process de-

scribed over the past 8 years. Holden and Eckert, academic authors, visited

ﬁve exemplar DMO projects, four of which are discussed below, to interview

DMO staﬀ, designers, clients, stakeholders and a manufacturer involved with

the organisation to develop and understanding of the DMO approach from

diﬀerent stakeholder perspectives. Interviews and group discussions were

recorded on video and audio for later analysis. The academic authors also

drew on descriptive and evaluative working papers and published documents

to develop an understanding of the organisation and its contribution to design

knowledge.

2 Context

The Design Med Omtanke (Considerate Design) project is a Swedish initiative

started by V

otalandregionen (V

astra G

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otaland has

played an active role in the Environmental Conference for European Regions

(ENCORE) since the 1990s and has a declared commitment to improve the

astra G

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Design Med Omtanke: Participation and sustainability

237

otaland region), beginning as

collaboration between the region and SVID, the Swedish Industrial Design

Foundation and HDK School of Design and Crafts. V

€

astra G

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sustainability of the region. The aim of the project was to stimulate economic

development in the region, in particular local furniture and textile industries,

through the design and use of sustainable products for the public sector. DMO

initially worked directly with public sector organisations to plan and imple-

ment major interior design projects. From the needs identiﬁed in this early

work the project developed to work with local manufacturers on the creation

of sustainable product design.

Initially, DMO found it very di cult to source sustainable furniture and tex-

tiles products and few companies in the region were interested in developing

such products. However, in 2003, DMO commenced more then 20 design pro-

jects with manufacturers interested in working on needs identiﬁed by public

sector projects. Designers, stakeholders of DMO projects and manufacturing

companies collaborated on the product designs. As the potential size of the

public sector market was realised, more companies were happy to become

involved.

In 2006 DMO undertook a large-scale procurement of products that met base

line environmental criteria and also a targeted procurement of products that

met eco label standards. Seen by advisers as the ‘toughest procurement ever

done in the ﬁeld of interior design’, sixty products eventually met the stan-

dards. These were published in a catalogue, the Gr

Listed products have to be manufactured by ‘approved suppliers’, typically

medium sized companies who are able to meet the volume demands of

large-scale procurement. Products are also required to meet the criteria for

the Swan Label, the Nordic Ecolabel, Bra Miljoval (Good Environmental

Choice) Swedish Ecolabel or the EU ﬂower. Manufacturers’ interest grew as

Region Vastra Gotaland encouraged public sector purchasers to choose prod-

ucts from the list. By 2010 the Green List had grown to 350 products and

helped many public sector organisations to easily identify and procure prod-

ucts meeting eco label standards.

As the DMO team carried out research to discover the needs of public sector

that might be met by local industry, they found themselves steering user

groups through similar steps for needs and requirements identiﬁcation. Inter-

action with professional designers then led to the fulﬁllment of these identi-

ﬁed needs. The DMO process began as a formalisation of these early,

informal, activities. The process has evolved and there is now an important

relationship between the individual projects, which commission designs for

speciﬁc contexts and the manufacturers who, via the DMO organisation,

add these commissioned items to the repertoire of sustainable products avail-

able for wider use. As a result of this approach the Green List is a growing

238

Design Studies Vol 32 No. 3 May 2011

ona Listan (Green List)

the following year. Most qualifying products were made by companies that

had worked with DMO.

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document now used extensively in the public sector in the region with interest

growing in other parts of Sweden. In 2008, of the 62 million krona (approx 6

million euros) spent on furniture by Vastra Gotaland region, one third of this

was spent on products from the Green List. In 2009 41% of all furnishings

bought in the region came from the list, with a target of 50% for 2010

( Vastra_Gotalandregionen, 2010 ).

DMO staﬀ have diverse professional backgrounds including expertise in envi-

ronmental issues and the public sector; public sector and accessibility; project

management, public sector and manufacturing; product design and design ed-

ucation. This mix of knowledge and expertise is seen by team members as very

important to the success of the DMO approach.

DMO team members act as advisers to individual projects and work with

architects and designers trained in the DMO process, to realise design

ideas as they evolve. There is no charge to the client for the DMO team’s

input but the work of the architects and designers is paid for at industry

rates.

The DMO process is speciﬁcally targeted at stakeholders, and does not pre-

scribe how the architect should approach the detailed design work. The ethos

of the approach is nurturing and empathic. The adviser informs assists and

mediates so that users are re-assured and supported through the complexity

of the building project. Evaluation (see Section 5 ) and interviews demonstrate

that this is well achieved.

In the early years, the DMO project’s work was concerned primarily with in-

terior design, reconﬁguration and refurbishment, but the scope of projects has

now extended to include external spaces. This expansion of scope led to a revi-

sion of the process in 2009. To date, the DMO team, have completed more

than 30 projects with a diverse range of public sector clients from the design

of nurseries and primary care health centres through to the design of a commu-

nal space for a Science Park. Current projects include the redesign of a bridge,

the design of external play environments and the design of specialised hospital

spaces.

3 The DMO approach

3 .1 Key aspects of the DMO approach

The DMO approach brings the aims of participative design together with

sustainable design to develop holistic solutions for public sector building pro-

jects that help to achieve the sustainability targets of the V

astra G

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Design Med Omtanke: Participation and sustainability

239

otaland re-

gion. The focus of the process is on eliciting a deep understanding of user

needs and ﬁnding sustainable solutions to these. The model has been

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