Build & Connect: Designing A Constructive, Participatory Physicalization Activity & Toolkit For Community Reflection,
2026
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Build & Connect: Designing A Constructive, Participatory Physicalization Activity & Toolkit For Community Reflection, Jenny Long, Caroline Gausden, Tara Capel, Uta Hinrichs
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper explores how slow design and care can inform reflective data physicalization practices. Physicalization has been recognized to widen participation in data exploration, but how can it serve communities with varied relationships to power, access, and exclusion? We explored this question through a case study that aimed at supporting a long-term community project through physicalization activities. We found that language around data and representation created barriers to participation, even when demonstrated through established physicalization activities. Centering design processes around participants’ reservations we arrived at Build & Connect, a constructive, participatory physicalization activity and toolkit which, based on the analogy …
Mediating Material Transitions. A Digital Library For Circular Upholstery Material Selection.,
2026
University of Bologna, Italy
Mediating Material Transitions. A Digital Library For Circular Upholstery Material Selection., Ludovica Rosato, Patrizia Bolzan, Laura Succini, Michele Zannoni
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In Made in Italy products, the material dimension represents a distinctive element, capable of expressing both the quality of the product and the heritage of craftsmanship embedded in the territory. In the upholstered furniture sector materials generate significant environmental and supply-chain impacts, making their selection a strategic leverage point for sustainability and circularity. This study investigates how a digital material library can support designers and SMEs in navigating this transition by integrating sustainable innovation with industrial feasibility. Grounded in the Advanced Design framework, the research adopts a four-step methodology to analyse the current supply system, identify circular alternatives, review existing …
Re-Materialising Design: Material Agency And The Reconfiguration Of Creative Practice,
2026
TU Delft, Netherlands, The
Re-Materialising Design: Material Agency And The Reconfiguration Of Creative Practice, Olga Ioannou
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper examines biobased materials as agents of creative and systemic transformation within design practice. Drawing from a university course on circular building product design, several graduation theses, and two research projects -one focused on food waste valorisation and another on load-bearing mycelium composites- it investigates how engagement with biobased, regenerative materials reconfigures the designer’s role across the value chain, from sourcing to post-use reintegration. By situating material experimentation within ecological and socio-technical transitions, the paper argues that biobased materials enable a re-materialisation of design knowledge, where making becomes a mode of inquiry into interdependencies between nature, technology, and culture. …
Proximity Ruff: Rehabilitating Relationality Through Postdigital Bodies,
2026
Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
Proximity Ruff: Rehabilitating Relationality Through Postdigital Bodies, Michela Musto, Marzia Micelisopo
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Proximity Ruff explores embodied interaction and social care through a wearable device that translates human proximity into light. Designed within The Spark Design Research Studio (Naples, Italy), it reinterprets the historical ruff as a postdigital interface that re-educates the body to closeness after the pandemic. Generated through evolutionary algorithms and 3D-printed in bioplastic PLA, the piece embeds 72 LEDs and proximity sensors that visualize interpersonal distance. Beyond quantification, the luminous feedback materializes affective data, transforming social gestures into somatic awareness. Grounded in somaesthetic design and critical materiality, the project investigates how sensing systems and computational materials can mediate care, empathy, …
Age-Ready Suburbia: Designing Distributed Care And Housing Transitions For Longevity,
2026
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America
Age-Ready Suburbia: Designing Distributed Care And Housing Transitions For Longevity, Kaicheng Zhuang, Minghao Du
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This thesis reimagines the aging U.S. suburb as a site of transition, where single-family housing can evolve into distributed care infrastructure supporting longevity and community well-being. Through onsite research in Sacramento and collaboration with local care providers, the project develops a scalable framework for retrofitting suburban homes into neighborhood-based care hubs connected by shared food, mobility, and caregiver networks. Integrating architectural transformation, service design, and participatory co-design methods, it proposes a systemic approach that bridges individual housing adaptation with urban-scale resilience. Rather than pursuing technological “smartness,” the model advances a human-centered LongevityTech vision,where design mediates between housing, health, and social …
Reorienting Design Futures With Hope,
2026
Politecnico di Milano, Design Department
Reorienting Design Futures With Hope, Manuela Celi, Victoria Rodriguez Schon
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper reorients Design Futures through hope as a situated, anticipatory, and actionable practice for working within postnormal conditions marked by uncertainty, systemic crisis, and defuturing. Bringing together futures studies, feminist epistemologies, and decolonial perspectives, it argues that design can help imagine and enact alternatives through situated interventions. The paper develops a conceptual and reflexive methodology that synthesizes three strands of literature; hope, hope and design, and hope and futures, and formulates three tactics for operationalizing hope in design practice: hoping as present-tense praxis, hoping otherwise, and projectual hope. Together, these frame hope as an ethical and political orientation that …
Re-Voicing Identity: Care Ethics And The Politics Of Unsilencing After Total Laryngectomy,
2026
Virginia Tech, United States of America
Re-Voicing Identity: Care Ethics And The Politics Of Unsilencing After Total Laryngectomy, Gala Lucia Gonzalez Barrios
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Voice loss after total laryngectomy disrupts identity and quality of life yet current assistive technologies reproduce techno-ableist assumptions, prioritizing speech mimicry over identity restoration while systematic marginalization excludes laryngectomees from research and innovation. This paper presents a care-centred participatory design agenda bridging a propositional approach “Singing Without a Larynx”, a vowel-based vocal interface for singing, with cross-cultural photovoice research in the United States and Argentina. Grounded in care ethics, we operationalize attentiveness, responsibility, and relational accountability, positioning participants as co-designers whose embodied knowledge shapes technological imaginaries, and community challenges and assets. We propose: (1) a critical framework integrating care ethics, …
Material Driven Design Education: Exploring Circularity And Regeneration Through Waste-Based Experimentation,
2026
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Material Driven Design Education: Exploring Circularity And Regeneration Through Waste-Based Experimentation, Ziqian Yu, Chengjun Li, Mei Yang, Hongwei Li, Valentina Rognoli
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In light of the escalating climate and resource crises, design education must reconsider its role in shaping circular and regenerative futures, particularly with regard to emerging materials from waste. This paper presents the results of a pedagogical study conducted at the Joint School of Design and Innovation of Xi’an Jiaotong University and Politecnico di Milano. In this study, 120 students transformed local food and textile waste into new materials through hands-on experimentation, based on the Material Driven Design (MDD) approach, in a Chinese educational context. A comparative analysis of six student projects across toy and accessory applications reveals a synergy …
Breaking The Cycle: Understanding Self-Experimentation As A Health Behavior Change Approach For Young Adults With Adhd,
2026
Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
Breaking The Cycle: Understanding Self-Experimentation As A Health Behavior Change Approach For Young Adults With Adhd, Çağla Şen, Jaap Daalhuizen, Jos J. Kraal
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is characterized by executive dysfunctions that disrupt the initiation and maintenance of everyday behaviors, making habit formation challenging. As a result, many individuals with ADHD struggle to sustain healthy routines. Conventional behavior change approaches overlook the complexity and variability of ADHD, highlighting the need for adaptive and personalized methods such as Self-Experimentation (SE). This study explores the potential of SE in supporting individuals with ADHD to change health behaviors. Using a Research through Design approach, stakeholders were involved across three iterative phases. The process resulted in two prototypes that facilitated SE while generating insights on how individuals …
Service Design-Driven Formation Of Dynamic Capabilities For International Service Innovation: A Case Study Of A Chinese Nev Firm,
2026
School of Design, Hunan University, China
Service Design-Driven Formation Of Dynamic Capabilities For International Service Innovation: A Case Study Of A Chinese Nev Firm, Chengbo Li, Jun Zhang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Amidst the acceleration of internationalization, service innovation has emerged as a critical pathway for New Energy Vehicle (NEV) firms to attain sustainable growth. Adopting a dynamic capability view (DCV), this paper investigates how service design contributes to the development of service innovation dynamic capabilities (SIDCs) within firms undergoing internationalization. Drawing upon a case study of the BYD New Energy Vehicle firm, the findings indicate that the functional, systemic, and iterative characteristics of service design facilitate the construction of micro-foundations for SIDCs. This is achieved through the integration of user insights, the fostering of cross departmental collaboration, and the reconfiguration of …
Deep Materialities - Investigating The Complex Socio-Technical Entanglements Of Materials Towards The Designing Of Resilient Futures,
2026
ENS PARIS SACLAY, France
Deep Materialities - Investigating The Complex Socio-Technical Entanglements Of Materials Towards The Designing Of Resilient Futures, Emile De Visscher, James Auger
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Each material production entails an ecosystem of interrelations linking geopolitical, economic, technological, cultural, social and sanitary dimensions, sometimes on a global scale. As designers, we are rarely conscious of these realities, and limit our actions to material selection at the scale of the artefact in constrained industrial and cultural settings. However, at a time of ecological crisis, tracking, revealing and understanding these complex systems is becoming an imperative if we are to transition towards resilient futures rooted in socio-economic realities. This article will present a pedagogical approach developed with Design Research MA students, where investigation and speculation stem from a …
Exploring Everyday Heritage Futures: Co-Creating Urban Narratives Through Cultural Probes,
2026
Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Exploring Everyday Heritage Futures: Co-Creating Urban Narratives Through Cultural Probes, Guo Chen, Robert G. Harland, Michael Wilson
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Narrative has long been used in cultural heritage for interpretation and communication, primarily within institutions and historic sites. Everyday heritage, however, foregrounds seemingly modest places and is constituted through routine interactions and practices, emphasising a continuing narrative between place and everyday life. Ubiquitous digital technologies make multi-layered narratives possible and bring underrepresented stories to light in situ. This pilot study in Loughborough’s Market Place, UK, explores narratives rooted in lived experiences that convey cultural-heritage significance. We designed and deployed cultural probes (a set of creative and speculative tasks) to prompt and record place-based stories. The analysis identified four themes: spatiality, …
From Participatory Processes To Systemic Transformation: A Service Design Perspective On Four Italian Case Studies,
2026
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy;
ISIA Florence - Higher Institute of Artistic Industries, Italy
From Participatory Processes To Systemic Transformation: A Service Design Perspective On Four Italian Case Studies, Rachele Gracci, Alexandra Coutsoucos, Sonia Belhaj, Irene Patria, Marco Tognetti, Valentina Gianfrate
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Participatory Processes (PPs) are increasingly fostering broader civic engagement, strengthening dialogue and collaboration between citizens, the third sector and public institutions. However, a gap persists between participatory aspirations and their implementation, limiting the capacity of processes to generate durable transformations in local governance structures and public service innovation. Employing a qualitative-comparative methodology, based on stakeholder mapping and service-ecosystem lens, the study analyses four novel cases involving green and peri-urban transformations across diverse Italian regions. By operating under diverse administrative frameworks, they present fertile ground for illustrating complementary and mutually reinforcing PPs. Through a Service Design lens, recurring patterns and mechanisms …
Designing For Emotion: A Scoping Review Of Phygital Emotional Experience Design In Historical Museums,
2026
College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University
Designing For Emotion: A Scoping Review Of Phygital Emotional Experience Design In Historical Museums, Linlin Wang, Jiarui Wu*, Yi Zhang, Sai Ma, Yingji Wang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Abstract: As digital technology becomes an integral part of museum services and strategies, visitor experiences have evolved from physical to phygital experiences. Phygital emphasizes the fusion of digital and physical environments, constructing complex emotional scenarios that bridge those realms across different exhibition phases—from entry and immersion to extended experiences—thus distinguishing itself from traditional, object-led historical museums. This scoping review employs a hybrid deductive-inductive coding method to analyse 54 publications from databases including WOS, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, PubMed, and PsycInfo. It proposes a DES emotional experience framework for historical museums and identifies corresponding technological interventions and design directions. The study advocates …
The Intrusive Sounds Of Resilence.,
2026
Casa Paganini-InfoMus Research Center, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
The Intrusive Sounds Of Resilence., Andrea Cera, Georgios Loupas, Eleftheria Lagiokapa, Nefeli Valeria Georgakopoulou, Sotiris Diplaris, Stefanos Vrochidis, Eleonora Ceccaldi, Nicola Corbellini, Simone Ghisio, Antonio Camurri
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In a ReSilence (S+T+Arts) residency dedicated to the consequences of urban soundscapes on human movement, 36 sound-files and their spectral analyses were considered as examples of auditory intrusiveness (intended as a pre-conscious effect, anticipating conscious behaviors). These 36 sounds were used in three modules: a pilot experiment to study the influence of auditory intrusiveness on human movement; an installation, where the sound-files were triggered by the participants' movement qualities – moreover, their spectral analyses served as prompts to an image-generating GAN network; in the design of a smartphone app, where the 36 analyses allowed to study the spectral features to …
Desiring Production: Design As An Ethical Action,
2026
Tongji University, China
Desiring Production: Design As An Ethical Action, Yihui Yang, Li Zhang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Contemporary design theory and practice have long taken user need-oriented as the core principle. Need has become the ethical and practical foundation of design. It has suppressed the creativity and initiative of both users and designers in the name of functionality. Tracing the origin and evolution of need in design history, this paper points out its inadaptability to complex contemporary design scenarios and diverse demands. On this basis, it introduces the Desiring Production theory of Deleuze and Guattari, reinterprets desire as a more productive and relational life power than need, and explores the feasible path for the ethical intervention of …
From Co-Design To Co-Execution: A Knowledge Map Of Real-Time User Participation In Service Settings (2008-2024),
2026
Tongji University, China, People's Republic of
From Co-Design To Co-Execution: A Knowledge Map Of Real-Time User Participation In Service Settings (2008-2024), Yue Cao, Yihan Zhao
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This bibliometric study analyzes 236 articles from Web of Science (2008-2024) to map the intellectual structure of real-time user participation in service encounters (RUP-SE). The field has transitioned from exploration (2008-2013) to maturity, with post-2020 publications averaging 29.5 annually. Three core research clusters emerge: real-time co-creation and participation, digitally-driven service innovation, and value creation-destruction dynamics. Theoretically grounded in service-dominant logic and value co-creation frameworks, the field addresses how technological advancement and COVID-19 have accelerated the shift from co-design to co-execution. However, platform architectures introduce governance logics that render co-execution inherently asymmetrical, and value co-destruction in algorithmic contexts may be structurally …
Fine Observation And Material Care: An Interactionist Approach To Design Aesthetics,
2026
Aalto University, Finland;
Universidad de la República, Uruguay
Fine Observation And Material Care: An Interactionist Approach To Design Aesthetics, Washington Morales-Maciel
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper argues that the question “How does the awareness of material sustainability change perceptions of aesthetics?” requires an interactionist framework from philosophical aesthetics, against both eliminativist and formalist models. Without treating materials as morally valuable entities, there is no room to integrate the ethical dimension into aesthetic evaluation. However, the question can be inverted, since aesthetic perceptions also contribute to how we ethically treat materials. Central to the argument is the claim that aesthetic properties, by virtue of their affective character, are partly constitutive of the moral dimension of visual representations, not mere embellishments but active elements in shaping …
A Systemic Design Approach To Supporting Children With Different Language Parents,
2026
Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium
A Systemic Design Approach To Supporting Children With Different Language Parents, Mitte Van Boxem, Maud Gruyters
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper describes a master’s thesis process in which systemic design was used to explore how children with a different home language than the national language can be supported. Using a systemic approach, this research maps the complex network surrounding these families and identifies key leverage points: valuing the home language, reducing pressure on the child, and strengthening family integration. Through interviews, cultural probes, and co-creation with professionals, insights were translated into a low-threshold product-service system (PSS) embedded in the children’s living environment. The PSS encourages family interaction and neighbourhood engagement through playful exploration. The findings underscore the potential of …
Balancing Aesthetics And Protection: How Digital Artists Navigate Structural Inequities Through Aesthetic Watermarking,
2026
School of Design, Hunan University, China
Balancing Aesthetics And Protection: How Digital Artists Navigate Structural Inequities Through Aesthetic Watermarking, Runqi Fang, Changjuan Ran, Shenglan Cui, Xiangyu Meng, Biyao Li, Fang Liu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Online presentations of digital art place artists in an ongoing trade-off between gaining exposure and protecting copyright, one that current platforms inadequately support. As a result, artists often rely on aesthetic watermarks, yet how they manage this balance remains underexplored. In this study, we conducted a co-creation workshop with 18 digital artists and examined how they design aesthetic watermarks in practice. Analysis reveals three key concerns shaping their decisions: aesthetic integrity, semantic fidelity, and protective functionality. Participants struggled to manage the tension between protection and artistic completeness, while also expressing growing concerns about the security of their work, facing rapid …
