Accessibility Analysis Of Hospital Lobbies In Korean Tertiary Hospitals Based On Space Syntax To Inform Design Strategies,
2026
Department of Interior Architecture and Built Environment, Yonsei University, Korea
Accessibility Analysis Of Hospital Lobbies In Korean Tertiary Hospitals Based On Space Syntax To Inform Design Strategies, Aijing Li, Yun Jeong Choi, Hokyun Lim
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Hospital lobbies are gradually transforming from traditional zones of circulation and waiting into multifunctional public spaces that integrate rest, cultural display, retail services, and social interaction. This study analyzes four tertiary hospitals in Korea using space syntax methods, specifically convex space analysis and visibility graph analysis, to quantitatively examine the integration and visual integration characteristics of various functional zones within the lobby. The analysis provides a systematic assessment of spatial accessibility and visual guidance within the lobby environment. From the perspective of enhancing user experience in healthcare settings, the study identifies four key design strategies aimed at optimizing circulation and …
Exploring How Packaging Transparency And Processing Level Affect Acceptance Of Edible Insects In Taiwan,
2026
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Exploring How Packaging Transparency And Processing Level Affect Acceptance Of Edible Insects In Taiwan, Wei-Chen Chiu, Chun-Heng Ho
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As global food systems face growing sustainability challenges, edible insects are emerging as a viable alternative protein source. This study explores how transparent window size and food processing level in packaging affect Taiwanese consumers’ purchase intentions toward insect-based foods. A 2 (window size: small vs. large) by 3 (processing level: unprocessed, semi-processed, fully processed) experiment with 359 participants, categorized by attitudes into acceptance and rejection groups, revealed that processing level significantly influenced purchase intention. Fully processed products received the highest acceptance across both groups. Window size had a minor effect, slightly increasing purchase intention among the rejection group when smaller …
Dialoguing With Design: How Llms Mediate Multimodal Workflows In Zero-Waste Fashion,
2026
The University of Edinburgh
Dialoguing With Design: How Llms Mediate Multimodal Workflows In Zero-Waste Fashion, Ping Li, Sarah Kettley, Mal James, Niki Taylor
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study investigates how large language models (LLMs) enable new modes of collaboration in zero-waste fashion design, addressing the challenge that traditional practice relies heavily on tacit knowledge developed through iterative material experimentation. Using first-person autoethnography, the research examines how a designer collaborates with ChatGPT and Claude across concept ideation, digital pattern development, toile construction, and sample production, tracing how technical terminology, design reasoning, and material knowledge are negotiated, misinterpreted, and re-articulated in human–AI interaction. Findings demonstrate that ChatGPT excels at generative conceptual prompting, whereas Claude better handles complex pattern-cutting rules; nevertheless, both require iterative, dialogue-based correction. The research proposes …
Dwelling, Making, And Digital Mediation: Mani Stone Piles In Eastern Tibet,
2026
Tianjin University
Dwelling, Making, And Digital Mediation: Mani Stone Piles In Eastern Tibet, Danmeng Xu, Han Sun, Zhijun Peng, Deng Pan, Jing Su
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study examines mani stone piles in Eastern Tibet as material forms emerging through dwelling, movement, and situated acts of making. Drawing on Tim Ingold’s dwelling perspective and long-term visual ethnography conducted between 2016 and 2025, it shows how mani piles are produced through the embodied selection, carrying, and stacking of stones at passes, riverbanks, and crossroads. Rather than treating these piles primarily as fixed religious symbols or products of prior design intention, we argue that their forms arise from the practical coordination of bodily skill, available materials, topography, ritual habit, and movement through the landscape. It further shows that …
Belonging Across Borders: A Framework For Transnationally Resonant Retail Design,
2026
University of Brighton, United Kingdom
Belonging Across Borders: A Framework For Transnationally Resonant Retail Design, Zakkiya Khan
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As global cities become increasingly transnational, retail environments have become key sites where mobile publics negotiate belonging through spatial and commercial experience. While transnational consumers are widely theorised, the spatial implications of their participation in global retail remain underexplored. This conceptual paper draws from transnational and diaspora studies to argue that retail design operates as a transcultural interface where familiarity and difference coexist, shaping plural modes of belonging. It proposes the concept, ‘Transnationally Resonant Retail Design’, a conceptual framework outlining how affective resonance, cultural mediation, and social recognition foster civic belonging within commercial spaces. These principles are illustrated by the …
Heterodox Economic Perspective For Designing Sustainability Transitions: Integrating Fundamental Human Needs And The Milieu Approach,
2026
Mines Saint-Etienne, Univ Lyon, CNRS, Univ Jean Monnet, Univ Lumière Lyon 2, Univ Lyon 3 Jean Moulin, ENS Lyon, ENTPE, ENSA Lyon, UMR 5600 EVS, Institut Henri Fayol, F - 42023 Saint-Etienne France;
Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Bordeaux INP, I2M, UMR 5295, F-33400 Talence, France;
Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology, CNRS, Bordeaux INP, I2M, UMR 5295, F-73375 Le Bourget-du-Lac, France
Heterodox Economic Perspective For Designing Sustainability Transitions: Integrating Fundamental Human Needs And The Milieu Approach, Maxime Ritouet, Audrey Tanguy, Tatiana Reyes, Valérie Laforest
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Design for sustainability transitions is an emerging field within design for sustainability that aims to provide guidelines and strategies to generate systemic change in society, mostly at the socio-technical system level. Nevertheless, some limitations of current approaches have been pointed out by scholars, including their market-centered perspective and the vague definition of the sustainability visions adopted. To overcome these limitations, a shift towards a heterodox economic perspective is needed. Such a shift could help define new goals for design – satisfying fundamental human needs – through an integrative vision of humans within their environment. The city scale appears particularly appropriate …
Is There Limitless Romance Behind A “Bunch Of Ones And Zeros”? How Social Vr Shapes Romantic Interaction And Its Design Implications,
2026
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary
Is There Limitless Romance Behind A “Bunch Of Ones And Zeros”? How Social Vr Shapes Romantic Interaction And Its Design Implications, Ágnes Karolina Bakk, David Redmond, Borbála Tölgyesi, Kata Szita
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study explores how romantic relationships and expressions of intimacy unfold within social virtual reality (SVR) environments such as VRChat. Drawing on virtual ethnography and 26 semi-structured interviews, it examines how embodiment, anonymity, and technological affordances shape trust, emotional intimacy, and sexual expression. While often framed as taboo, these dynamics are central to understanding relational practices in immersive environments. Findings show that intimacy is experienced as both emotionally authentic and technologically mediated, emerging through practices such as roleplay, virtual touch, and shared activities. The study highlights how anonymity simultaneously enables openness and introduces challenges around trust, consent, and safety. By …
Toward Speculation Otherwise: Correspondence And Contamination In Design Engagements With Urban Renewal,
2026
IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Toward Speculation Otherwise: Correspondence And Contamination In Design Engagements With Urban Renewal, Anna-Mamusu Sesay Wehlitz, Thomas Binder
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper explores speculation otherwise by tracing how speculative potential emerges from the very first encounters of design research. Rather than viewing speculation as a designer-led projection of possible futures, we propose a shift toward understanding speculation as something to be recognized within already unfolding worlds. Drawing on Tsing’s notion of contamination and Ingold’s concept of correspondence, we show how design engagements evolve through entanglements with speculative forces circulating in the everyday: through material residues, infrastructural rhythms, social negotiations, and more-than-human relations. Through slow alignments, tentative invitations, failed funding applications and walks through neighbourhood sites, we describe how our own …
Materialising Ecologies Of Intelligence: Learning To Design With And Within More-Than-Human Systems,
2026
The Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom
Materialising Ecologies Of Intelligence: Learning To Design With And Within More-Than-Human Systems, Marianne Mcara, Zoë Prosser, Kirsty Ross
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Design is evolving from primarily human-centred approaches towards planetary concerns that re-centre more-than-human agency – a perspective that correlates with pressing ecological challenges emerging from global anthropogenic impacts. Against this backdrop, design education that equips graduates with the competencies to engage present and future complex socioecological challenges continue to develop. The authors discuss interconnected drivers that are shaping the wider field and advancing designers' roles before presenting a pedagogical model that supports design students to engage in academic-industry-community collaboration and forms of making to materialise complex systems and evolving epistemologies in accessible and tangible ways. The authors offer insights into …
Co-Creating Connections: How Design, Healthcare, And Museum Actors Experience A Co-Creation Process,
2026
University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Sciences, Architecture + Interior
Co-Creating Connections: How Design, Healthcare, And Museum Actors Experience A Co-Creation Process, Margo Annemans, Iulia Vescan, Frederik Vandyck, Grietje D'Hollander, Maarten Van Acker, Inge Glazemakers
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In recent years, co-creation has become common in design and healthcare contexts. This paper examines a co-creation process aimed at creating a physical link between a museum park and a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. Whereas the experiences of end-users are key in co-creation processes, only few studies analyse how research and design actors experience partaking in such process. Therefore, we aim to unravel how a co-creation process is perceived by the various actors involved to ultimately foster improved understanding and collaboration and formulate recommendations for future projects. Through a focused collective autoethnographic approach, we explore the experiences of all …
Mediating More-Than-Human Care: Art, Design And Climate Governance,
2026
Hasselt University, Belgium
Mediating More-Than-Human Care: Art, Design And Climate Governance, Liesbeth Huybrechts, Jaz Hee-Jeong Choi, Rachel Elisabeth Clarke, Louise Mazet, Kana Ohashi
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Art is increasingly mobilised in climate governance and policy, yet often instrumentalised for predefined human agendas of data visualisation, awareness raising, and science communication. This paper explores design research’s role as a mediator of more radical art-driven participation that cultivates more-than-human care ecologies: relational configurations that redistribute sensing, accountability, and decision-making across human and other-than-human actors. Drawing on theories of care and affective politics, we examine how design research can support art-driven participation through a critical literature review. Three illustrative case studies addressing sustainable transitions on an interregional level, urban air pollution, and disaster recovery demonstrate a move from anthropocentric …
The Role Of Packaging In Smart Home Design,
2026
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massacusetts Institute of Technology;
AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Role Of Packaging In Smart Home Design, Nour Al Maalouf, Chaiwoo Lee
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As technology becomes vital to aging independently, its first points of contact such as packaging influence accessibility and confidence. This study examines how older adults engage with technology through packaging. Nineteen Boston-based adults aged 65 to 85 interacted with three smart home kit packaging prototypes. Observations and interviews highlighted four main insights: Participants preferred (1) design that supported independent use, (2) visible organization of all components, (3) easy, tool-free opening, and (4) sustainable, recyclable materials. Ninety-five percent recalled past frustration with packaging that felt like it was meant “for someone else.” These results suggest that designing for longevity means rethinking …
Ikigai: Co-Reflection With Ai To Enhance Career Direction Clarity In Design Education,
2026
Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Ikigai: Co-Reflection With Ai To Enhance Career Direction Clarity In Design Education, Claudia Mayer, Wina Smeenk, Giulia Calabretta
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As the design profession becomes increasingly diverse and fluid, many design students struggle to define a clear career direction. Existing reflection practices in education offer support, yet outcomes remain inconsistent due to limited mentoring capacity, uneven role model exposure and ambiguity in emerging roles. This paper investigates how the combination of generative AI and facilitated human reflection can support students in increasing their perceived career direction clarity. We present the results of an explorative investigation on IkigAI, an educational workshop combining the Japanese ikigai framework with GenAI as a co-reflective partner. Human reflection and three rounds of GenAI interaction with …
Putting An Ear To The Ground: Attending To Frictions In Human-Machine-Soil Temporalities,
2026
Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
Putting An Ear To The Ground: Attending To Frictions In Human-Machine-Soil Temporalities, Margrete Lodahl Rolighed, Lone Koefoed Hansen
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In this paper we present "Plant-disco", an interactive physical design object that seeks to make activities in soil (e.g. bugs and plant growth) sensible to humans. With this, we discuss how more-than-human temporalities come to surface (such as plant, soil, microorganisms and machine) and how this creates friction in our human perception of time and interaction. The central aspect of the paper is to discuss how the design, as a result of trying to extend human appreciation of nature into soil, also intervenes in human temporalities by engaging with the seemingly slow pace of nature at a time where most …
(Re)Framing Timber Values: Cascade Use Metrics As A Dynamic Policy Tool,
2026
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-Lausanne (EPFL), RIOT Lab
(Re)Framing Timber Values: Cascade Use Metrics As A Dynamic Policy Tool, Elif Erez-Henderson, Nadja Gaudillière-Jami, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Salvaged timber embodies a paradox of contemporary circularity: despite its capacity to store carbon and its long history of reuse, it remains marginal within modern construction. Its reuse is constrained by regulations that both shape and reflect the material’s value. This paper reframes this paradox through the lens of value fluctuation–how financial, carbon, and social values oscillate and misalign across timber’s successive lives, determining whether it circulates as resource, product, or waste. These sequential uses, known as cascade use, describe an approach to resource management that prioritizes biomass retention. Building on this framework, the paper proposes a value-centered cascade-use metric …
Tagus Estuary Color Swatch – Materials As Affective Mediators In More-Than-Human Temporalities,
2026
ITI/LARSyS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Tagus Estuary Color Swatch – Materials As Affective Mediators In More-Than-Human Temporalities, Mariana Simoes, Mariana Pestana, Frederico Duarte, Valentina Nisi
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper reimagines material catalogues not as static inventories but as archives of deep-time and affect: tools for sensing, caring for, and reconfiguring our relationships with the more-than-human world. It presents Tagus estuary colour swatch, a Research-through-Design exploration in which bio-pigments derived from local plant, mineral, algal, and waste streams form a colour palette embodying the estuary’s ecological rhythms. The project reframes materials beyond inert resources but rather as affective mediators of and for more-than-human temporalities – by embodying and expressing temporal processes and by enabling designers and audiences to engage with them. Positioned against the extractivist legacy of traditional …
Design Activism Pedagogy: Learning And Negotiating Values In Practice,
2026
Federal University of Paraná, Brazil
Design Activism Pedagogy: Learning And Negotiating Values In Practice, Gheysa Caroline Prado
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper examines how design education can reveal and negotiate values through the practice of design activism. Based on a multi-year teaching experience with undergraduate design students, the study reflects on how pedagogical strategies oriented by emancipation and collective responsibility enable the articulation of ethical awareness in design processes. The teaching approach evolved from remote reflection-based activities to embodied, field-based interventions that addressed social and environmental issues in local communities. Through qualitative analysis of classroom documentation and student projects, the study identifies values such as reciprocity, dignity, and solidarity as emerging drivers of learning and design action. The discussion highlights …
"It's Going To Be A Really Good Place To Hang Out": Supporting Diversity In Community Indoor Environments By Eliciting Autistic Adults’ Preferences,
2026
Keio University, Japan
"It's Going To Be A Really Good Place To Hang Out": Supporting Diversity In Community Indoor Environments By Eliciting Autistic Adults’ Preferences, Asako Osedo, Stella Boess
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study investigates how indoor environments, for example of schools or workplaces, can actively support the diversity of communities, by considering the case of autistic adults’ preferences for them. Employing a participatory design approach, we engaged autistic individuals to understand their lived experiences, preferences for meaningful in-person social interactions, and their strategies to engage in social settings. Key findings highlight the importance of sensory regulation, vibrant and engaging spaces that mitigate awkwardness and promote authentic interactions, and the role of predictability and autonomy in reducing unnecessary stresses. We show how autistic adults can be supported in managing their regulation to …
Design Materials,
2026
School of Design and Creative Arts (SDCA), Loughborough University
Design Materials, Roberta Bernabei, Maria Maclennan
DRS Biennial Conference Series
No abstract provided.
Longevitytech Cities: Design For Age-Inclusive Urban Futures,
2026
Urban Technology, University of Michigan, USA
Longevitytech Cities: Design For Age-Inclusive Urban Futures, Sheng-Hung Lee, Sofie Hodara, Satu Miettinen, Bruce Hanington, Carla Sedini, Andreas Sicklinger, Miso Kim, Joseph F. Coughlin
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The global demographic transition toward longer lifespans is fundamentally reshaping cities, services, and social infrastructures. This editorial introduces the LongevityTech City track at the Design Research Society (DRS) conference, positioning it as an evolution of Design for Longevity (D4L) toward urban-scale systems integration. Building on prior D4L discourse that emphasizes life-stage continuity, service systems, and human-centered design, this track foregrounds the intersection of technology, participatory design, and systemic urban transformation. Eleven accepted papers collectively explore how emerging technologies, multisensory experiences, participatory methods, and service ecosystems can support equitable, meaningful, and sustainable aging across diverse contexts. Organized around three interdependent themes—1. …
