Plant Biographies: Expanding More-Than-Human Modes Of Relating,
2026
Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Plant Biographies: Expanding More-Than-Human Modes Of Relating, Keili Koppel, Larissa Pschetz, Michelle Bastian, Antje Ahrends
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The term “plant awareness disparity” describes a tendency to overlook plants in the environment leading us to underestimate their significance in ecological systems. In this paper, we explore plant biographies as a participatory narrative method that aims to leverage new modes of relating to plants. The method consists of introducing people to the history of seasonal changes experienced by the plant, inviting them to locate and attune to its present condition, and finally writing a short biography about the plant. The interaction was tested with visitors of a botanic garden, who were invited to engage with two individual Rhododendron plants, …
Reimagining Id Education With Ai: Perceptions, Practices, And Pedagogical Implications Of Ai Adoption,
2026
North Carolina State University, United States of America
Reimagining Id Education With Ai: Perceptions, Practices, And Pedagogical Implications Of Ai Adoption, Yuanqing Tian, Byungsoo Kim
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study investigates how Industrial Design (ID) programs can effectively adopt and integrate Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) into curricula, while respecting the well-established ID workflow and preserving the core ID values of originality and creativity. Through multi-perspective qualitative research (including 7 ID faculty members, 6 industry professionals, and over 70 ID students), this study maps current AI tools, roles, and use cases within the ID workflow, identifies key pedagogical challenges, and proposes strategies that bridge foundational design traditions with emerging AI opportunities. Findings introduces a progressive learning trajectory, supported by innovative teaching practices that cultivate an AI-collaborative design mindset. By …
The Role Of Participatory Architecture In Urban Transition,
2026
Lancaster University, United Kingdom
The Role Of Participatory Architecture In Urban Transition, Mirian Calvo, Carmen Fabregat-Nodar
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In response to escalating socio-environmental challenges, transformative approaches in architectural design are crucial for facilitating urban transitions. Conventional adaptation strategies, prioritising density and digital integration, often fail to address the multifaceted crises facing modern urban contexts. Participatory architecture offers a shift towards socially engaged practices, fostering innovation and sustainable adaptation by creating spaces of disruption. This study evaluates projects in Colombia, Spain, Senegal, and the UK using our tailored/expanded deep adaptation framework through four components— resilience, relinquishment, restoration, and reconciliation. Our findings reveal that participatory architecture can enable communities to transform vulnerabilities into actionable interventions for sustainable development and transitions. …
Strategic Thermal Design For Smartphones: An Experimental Analysis Of Zonal Heat Perception Across Hand Contact Regions,
2026
School of Design,Hunan University, People’s Republic of China
Strategic Thermal Design For Smartphones: An Experimental Analysis Of Zonal Heat Perception Across Hand Contact Regions, Ke Zeng, Xing Xiao, Haining Wang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Technical solutions dominate current approaches to smartphone overheating, yet user-centred strategies that exploit zonal thermal perception remain underexplored. This study examined how contact region (thumb, index finger, thenar eminence), surface temperature (36.0-43.5°C), and exposure duration (0s vs. 120s) jointly shape thermal experience. Thirty adults completed trials with a prototype featuring hotspots at high-frequency grip locations, rating perceived heat and thermal dissatisfaction using two Borg CR-10 items. A PERMANOVA revealed a significant Area × Temperature interaction (F = 10.35, p < .001): the thenar eminence showed disproportionately higher ratings at ≥ 42 °C than the other areas. Main effects of temperature and duration were also significant (p < .001), indicating discomfort intensifies with hotter surfaces and prolonged contact. These findings provide an empirical basis for strategic thermal zoning, placing or redirecting heat away from high-sensitivity regions, and complement hardware-level cooling with ergonomically informed design.
Attuned Design Practice: Embodied Knowledge As A Design Vocabulary At The Intersection Of Artistic And Scientific Inquiry.,
2026
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Attuned Design Practice: Embodied Knowledge As A Design Vocabulary At The Intersection Of Artistic And Scientific Inquiry., Anne Marleen Olthof, Jouke Verlinden, Somaya Ben Allouch
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This article introduces Attuned Design Practice (ADP) as an umbrella term for studying embodied knowledge at the intersection of artistic and scientific inquiry. It addresses an epistemological gap across design and human–computer interaction, dance and somatics, and disability studies. Building on an existing framework of embodied knowing, we examine domain-specific traditions and expose the threshold between these knowledge domains. We propose Open Rehearsals as experimental settings for co-performance among human and non-human actors. Within this context, attunement is introduced as a performative materiality that enables relational, situated, and operational forms of understanding across disciplines. An eighteen-month field study in design, …
Data And Power: A Tool For Designing Data Visualisations From A Feminist Perspective,
2026
Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Brazil
Data And Power: A Tool For Designing Data Visualisations From A Feminist Perspective, Bianca Novais Queiroz, Virgínia Tiradentes Souto
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The production of knowledge in data visualisation can serve as a space for the reproduction of social hierarchies; therefore, there may be an intrinsic relationship between normative parameters in design and power structures. This study examines normative biases in information design and presents counterpoints to the predominance of these hegemonic values from a feminist perspective. Drawing on a theoretical framework that challenges established norms, this paper proposes a critical analytical and methodological tool to transcend normative bias in the design process. The tool supports the analysis and creation of visualisations from a humanistic and feminist perspective. To validate its potential, …
Boundary Objects For Systemic Insight: Relational And Embodied Systemic Co-Design Case Studies,
2026
Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Boundary Objects For Systemic Insight: Relational And Embodied Systemic Co-Design Case Studies, Laura Niño Caceres, Sietske Klooster, Caroline Hummels, Wina Smeenk
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Relational negotiation, contextual adaptation, and reflective exchanges between designers and non‑designers are central to how boundary objects shape knowledge creation and systemic insight in Systemic Co‑Design (SCD). Drawing on the ESCollab publication, this study examines two embodied SCD cases, the MelkSalon and the Co‑Design Canvas, which foreground sensory, experiential, and artefact‑based engagement. Using systems thinking, Relevance Theory, Aristotelian rhetoric, and affordance theory as lenses, we analyse how these boundary objects mediate boundary framing between designers and non‑designers. Findings indicate that boundary objects are most effective when grounded in contextual and cultural realities, fostering emotional engagement, trust, and adaptive participation to …
Care-Ful Sensemaking: Co-Mapping Lived Experiences And Biases In Hormonal Self-Management Tools,
2026
University of Twente, The Netherlands
Care-Ful Sensemaking: Co-Mapping Lived Experiences And Biases In Hormonal Self-Management Tools, Roberta Antognini, Francesca Toso, Cristina Zaga, Mascha Van Der Voort
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Self-management technologies help patients manage their health and improve autonomy by tracking biomedical data. For people with hormonal chronic conditions, these tools clarify complex, fluctuating symptoms. These technologies often rely on clinical data, overlooking the complexity and context of lived experiences, risking continued healthcare bias. This paper explores the lived experiences of people with chronic hormonal illness through a feminist ethics of care perspective. In collaborative sensemaking workshops, we unveiled how social and political contexts shape these experiences, the implicit politics of what data is valued (and what is not), and the socio-technical framing of self-management tools. Examining the intersections …
Practice-As-Paradigm: Towards Ethical And Affective Methodologies In Participatory Architectural Research,
2026
University of Reading, United Kingdom
Practice-As-Paradigm: Towards Ethical And Affective Methodologies In Participatory Architectural Research, Tom Harvey
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This practice-based and interdisciplinary doctoral research develops methods for participatory and ethically engaged architectural research. Drawing on over a decade of architectural practice, it proposes practice-as-paradigm: a mode of knowledge production grounded in making, relation, and reflection. Centred on the Southampton Way estate in south-east London, the research develops a reflexive and diffractive methodology attentive to affective-knowing—tacit, embodied, and emotional knowledge—alongside technical expertise. Drawing on radical democratic theory, it treats participation as performative and political, where care and conflict co-produce insight. Models, prototypes, and installations operate as heuristic and epistemic artefacts through which collaboration, negotiation, and play generate situated understanding. …
From Matter To Method: Situated And Relational Approaches Through Geothermal Clays,
2026
Aalto University, Finland
From Matter To Method: Situated And Relational Approaches Through Geothermal Clays, Alejandra Vera
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Working with natural materials can open space for exploratory forms of inquiry. This paper examines how nature influences our approaches to artistic practice and research. Through the frameworks of introspective methodologies and posthumanism, this study examines a case of Icelandic geothermal clays to reflect on possible methodological approaches within artistic research. The author’s ceramic practice serves to trace the processes of developing artworks with natural materials. The acts of collecting, testing, and designing with geothermal clays become both a creative and an epistemic endeavour, a way of thinking with and through materials. Artistic practice emerges as a form of inquiry …
Who Designs The Designer? An Anticolonial Response To The World That Design Us Back,
2026
Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco
Who Designs The Designer? An Anticolonial Response To The World That Design Us Back, Eduardo A. B. M. Souza, Carmem Saito, Frederick Van Amstel, Rodrigo Freese Gonzatto
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The ontological aspect of designing is commonly defined as a feedforward loop between the world and the designer, as if the world designed us as much as we design it. In this definition, derived from the “everyone is a designer” motto, “everyone” means “we,” but also “no one”. Thus, design philosophy avoids scrutinizing worldly agents interested in designing the designer, understanding the world as a homogeneous force reacting to the designer. A world where many worlds fit isn’t a homogeneous one; therefore, answering “who designs the designer?” from an anticolonial stance requires considering the social production of design(ed) bodies and …
From Interface To Intuition: Rethinking Design Ontologies In The Age Of Ambient Intelligence,
2026
istituto Marangoni, Italy
From Interface To Intuition: Rethinking Design Ontologies In The Age Of Ambient Intelligence, Sergio Nava
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As artificial intelligence evolves into ambient, distributed systems, design faces an ontological transformation. The traditional interface, once the visible boundary between humans and machines, is dissolving, giving rise to new modes of intuitive, sensory, and relational interaction. This paper argues for a shift from interface to intuition, where design no longer mediates through visual representation but orchestrates subtle ecologies of perception and awareness. Drawing on design philosophy and posthuman theory, it explores how AI redefines core categories of form, presence, and authorship, suggesting that meaning now emerges through attunement rather than control. In this post-visual paradigm, designers act as mediators …
Expanding Curriculum And Pedagogical Strategies In Architecture Education With Developments On Additive Manufacturing And Wood Composites,
2026
University of Idaho, United States of America
Expanding Curriculum And Pedagogical Strategies In Architecture Education With Developments On Additive Manufacturing And Wood Composites, Carolina Manrique Hoyos, Randall Teal, Michael R. Maughan
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Faculty and students in our Architecture Department have been engaged as one of the four research teams in an interdisciplinary and interjurisdictional collaboration funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The overall goal of this research is to develop the science, technology, design, and educational frameworks focused on the utilization of wood waste to make 100% bio-based materials for the Advanced Housing Manufacturing Industry of the Future. The Architecture Cradle-to-Cradle Design Team (C2C) focused on: 1- developing design speculations and scenarios for wood composites and additive manufacturing architectural applications (research-by-design); 2- developing a customized assessment toolbox for determining performance benchmarks …
From Mindset To Measurement: Developing Scales For Inclusive And Reflective Design Practice,
2026
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
From Mindset To Measurement: Developing Scales For Inclusive And Reflective Design Practice, Akrimar Tongkaew, Carina Lomberg, Dagný Valgeirsdóttir, Maria Funk
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Design practitioners and educators play an important role in advancing inclusive societies. However, the impact of educational initiatives aimed at cultivating inclusive thinking and behaviour among designers remains underexamined. We address this gap by reporting phase 1 of a scale-development study to measure inclusive mindset, knowledge, and behaviour in design and engineering education. Building on the Inclusive Mindset Model, the study operationalises inclusivity into three scales and presents the initial item pool developed through item generation and content validation. Following established scale-development procedures, items were refined through feedback from six expert judges and eight engineering students, resulting in an initial …
Participatory Visual Mapping As A Systemic Data Collection Method In Complex, High-Pressure Context,
2026
University of Arts London, United Kingdom
Participatory Visual Mapping As A Systemic Data Collection Method In Complex, High-Pressure Context, Wenbo Ai, Alison Prendiville
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper introduces design ethnographic methods—participatory observation and visual mapping activities—used in the discovery phase of a co-design project aimed at optimising blood culture pathways for potentially infectious patients across three NHS trust emergency departments in the UK. By integrating participatory systemic design with ethnographic approaches, the study enabled clinical staff to share their insights and shape service workflows. Their engagement reshapes systemic thinking for blood culture pathways used by clinical staff, enabling researchers to frame co-design workshops and later systemic interventions for the next stage of the research project. This paper emphasises the significance of systemic visual mapping activities …
Surfacing Design Requirements. A Conceptual Framework For Entity Identification In Smart Product-Service Systems,
2026
University of Bath, United Kingdom
Surfacing Design Requirements. A Conceptual Framework For Entity Identification In Smart Product-Service Systems, Elena M. Dumitrana, Vimal Dhokia, Bryan, C. C. Clift, Debbie J. Janson
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Smart Product-Service Systems (SPSS) design recognises the need to engage diverse stakeholders, yet traditional design approaches often overlook entities critical in the operationalisation of a SPSS - contextual users, regulators, AI entities - until late implementation stages. This paper argues that entity identification in SPSS design requires interrogating underlying assumptions about which entities matter and why. Drawing from systems thinking and human-centred design, the paper proposes a multi-dimensional framework for reconceptualising entities that warrant design consideration. Rather than presenting a neutral taxonomy, the framework provides structure for examining how design assumptions determine which perspectives are centred and which are overlooked …
Menopause Technologies Beyond Ableism And Normativity,
2026
University of Salzburg, Austria;
Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, Salzburg, Austria
Menopause Technologies Beyond Ableism And Normativity, Omleila Mohammadi, Sabine Thayer, Bernhard Maurer, Verena Fuchsberger
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Many technologies are available that address menopause, yet more or less exclusively reflect and reinforce dominant narratives of ableism and normativity. To uncover untold stories of the menopause journey and add perspective to the pluralistic menopause experience, we conducted two workshop sessions with cis women and gender-diverse individuals who have experienced menopause. Through feminist and reflexive methodology and using critical disability studies (CDS) as an analytical lens, we present how menopause experiences are shaped through bodily transformations and relational social practices. Finally, we discuss possible future design directions for shaping the menopause experience beyond its conventional notion. We call for …
The Didactic Body: Interdisciplinary Design Pedagogy In 1970s Denmark,
2026
Royal Danish Academy, Denmark
The Didactic Body: Interdisciplinary Design Pedagogy In 1970s Denmark, Christine Bjerke
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper explores alternative pedagogical approaches that centred the relationship between the human body and design in 1970s Denmark. Initiated by lecturers at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts – School of Architecture (today Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation), a series of interdisciplinary ergonomics seminars (1974–78) at Institute 3C2 brought together more than a hundred students and lecturers from architecture, design, dance, and the medical and social sciences. Through archival research and oral history, I analyse these overlooked teaching practices and situate them within broader societal changes. Informed by disability studies, I examine how the seminars negotiated …
Measuring Service-Related Subjective Wellbeing In Paediatric Oncology,
2026
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Measuring Service-Related Subjective Wellbeing In Paediatric Oncology, Valentina Marques Da Rosa, Priscila Goergen Brust-Renck, Flavio Sanson Fogliatto, Leandro Miletto Tonetto
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Children’s hospitalisation affects more than physical health; it shapes children’s subjective wellbeing (SWB). Yet design researchers rarely systematically capture SWB. This study introduces the Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire for Hospitalised Children (SWBQ-HC), a tool that measures children’s perceptions of themselves, hospital services, and spaces. Developed by combining validated psychological scales with service- and space-specific items, the tool was piloted with 19 paediatric patients (aged 4–13) and 35 parents. Factor analysis revealed four dimensions: Positive and Negative Feelings about Self, and Feelings about Hospital Services and Spaces. The results highlight the interplay between relational and environmental factors in shaping SWB and reveal …
Learning To Design With Communities: Situated Public Design Education Through The Roots Project In The Gambia,
2026
Esade Business School, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
Learning To Design With Communities: Situated Public Design Education Through The Roots Project In The Gambia, Mireia Sierra, Juan José Ramos, Ramon Bragos
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper presents the ROOTS Project, developed by interdisciplinary student teams from Esade, UPC, and IED within Fusion Point's Challenge-Based Innovation framework, in collaboration with IdeaSquare at CERN. As part of a challenge proposed by IDAEA-CSIC (Spain) and the Sankandi Youth Development Association (SYDA, The Gambia), students co-designed low-cost environmental monitoring tools to support community-led mangrove restoration in the River Gambia region. A two-week field deployment in Sankandi embedded the project within a layered local governance structure (the Alkalo, the Village Development Committee, and its Environmental Committee) through which the technology was formally adopted and transferred. Drawing on student reflections …
