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Generative Analogical Intelligence: Speculative Co-Design Through The Fabric Of Analogy, Nishra Ranpura Jun 2026

Generative Analogical Intelligence: Speculative Co-Design Through The Fabric Of Analogy, Nishra Ranpura

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly embedded in creative practice, offering new possibilities for ideation while raising concerns about reduced idea diversity and diminished cognitive engagement. This paper introduces generative analogical intelligence (GAI) as a human-centered approach that foregrounds analogy, material culture, and speculative reasoning to sustain creative thinking. Through a research-through-design (RtD) methodology, the study develops and refines the FABRIC framework (form, action, behavior, relation, intention, context) across three co-design phases involving design students, non-specialists, and design professionals. Findings suggest that analogy-based cross-pollination can reintroduce productive cognitive friction, support both divergent and convergent thinking, and generate varied outcomes. However, …

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Design-Led Ecodesign Implementation: Enabling Product And Organisational Transformation For Sustainability Transitions, Enrica Monticelli, Francesco Zurlo Jun 2026

Design-Led Ecodesign Implementation: Enabling Product And Organisational Transformation For Sustainability Transitions, Enrica Monticelli, Francesco Zurlo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

A research project conducted in a major appliance company investigates how Ecodesign, when implemented through a design-led and cross-functional process, can evolve from a technical activity into a catalyst for organisational transformation. The study examines the application of a company-specific Ecodesign tool designed to guide product development teams and support adaptive change. A conceptual framework integrating Design-Led Innovation, Dynamic Capabilities, and the Multi-Level Perspective is adopted to interpret how design mediates learning across functions. The paper focuses on the Seize phase, when Ecodesign is integrated into new product development routines through pilot projects. These pilots act as experimental settings in …

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Fostering Human-Material Co-Creative Dialogical Relationship: Operationalizing The Art Of Making Through Degeneration, Ye Yang Jun 2026

Fostering Human-Material Co-Creative Dialogical Relationship: Operationalizing The Art Of Making Through Degeneration, Ye Yang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Moving beyond instrumental rationality that treats materials as passive objects, this study operationalizes the Art of Making (AoM) by proposing a three-dimensional degeneration approach. Degeneration disrupts object fixity, reframing objects as materials in a state of in-betweenness that invites co-creative dialogue. Adopting drawing as a universal making practice, we empirically grounded this proposition through five workshops with ten participants from diverse countries and design backgrounds. By degenerating sensory, bodily, explorative, and social dimensions of drawing products and practices, the resulting state of material-in-between invited participants into dialogical engagements. Findings reveal that this state sparks curiosity, transcends preconceptions, activates subconscious exploration …

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Opening Up Design Impact Assessment: From Singular Metrics To Plural Understandings, Cyril Tjahja, Barbara Predan, Joana Meroz, Petra Černe Oven, Harun Kaygan, Flavia Piancazzo, Ines Tolic, Annamari Vänskä Jun 2026

Opening Up Design Impact Assessment: From Singular Metrics To Plural Understandings, Cyril Tjahja, Barbara Predan, Joana Meroz, Petra Černe Oven, Harun Kaygan, Flavia Piancazzo, Ines Tolic, Annamari Vänskä

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The theme track Opening Up Design Impact Assessment: From Singular Metrics to Plural Understandings addresses the limitations of conventional approaches that rely on standardised and predominantly quantitative metrics. The ten contributions in this track therefore explore alternative ways of understanding design impact, considering it as a situated, relational, and interpretative phenomenon. Instead of proposing a single evaluative framework, the papers collectively demonstrate how impact emerges through diverse practices, contexts, and forms of knowledge. The track is organised into two complementary sessions: one that reconfigures structured approaches to assessment, and another that foregrounds lived experience and participatory processes. Together, they point …

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Mediating Sonic Worlds: Critical Approaches To Boundary Objects In Sound-Driven Design, Stefano Delle Monache, Nicolas Misdariis, Elif Özcan, Daniel Hug, Sara Lenzi, Sandra Pauletto, Davide Rocchesso, Simone Spagnol Jun 2026

Mediating Sonic Worlds: Critical Approaches To Boundary Objects In Sound-Driven Design, Stefano Delle Monache, Nicolas Misdariis, Elif Özcan, Daniel Hug, Sara Lenzi, Sandra Pauletto, Davide Rocchesso, Simone Spagnol

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This theme critically examines boundary objects – work arrangements, artefacts and representations facilitating cooperation across diverse social groups [1, 2] – at the intersection of sound and design. Our fundamental question is: how effectively can objects informed or defined by sound and listening fulfil this important role in design [3]? Sound-driven design [4, 5] addresses complex socio-technological challenges induced by sound to design for sonic habitability: positive auditory experiences that enhance well-being, foster social connection, and promote a more harmonious relationship between humans, their technologies, and their environments [6]. Sonic boundary objects leverage sound and listening to structure information and …

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Discourses In Design Research: Historical, Critical, And Speculative Perspectives, Peter Lloyd, Theodora Vardouli, Moa Carlsson, Arlene Oak, Anna Talley, Haian Xue Jun 2026

Discourses In Design Research: Historical, Critical, And Speculative Perspectives, Peter Lloyd, Theodora Vardouli, Moa Carlsson, Arlene Oak, Anna Talley, Haian Xue

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The field of design research is now over 60 years old but, despite comprehensive archives existing, such as the DRS Digital Library, little systematic historical research has been done looking critically at how concepts in the field have developed over time. Studies looking at how certain discourses have come to dominate in design research, and those that have been disregarded, are long overdue. The theme-track Discourses in Design Research: Historical, Critical, and Speculative Perspectives invited submissions engaging historically and critically with ideas and concepts that have helped shape the discipline of design research. The papers share a concern both with …

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More-Than-Human Design In The Real World: Resistance, Regeneration, And Radical Solidarity, Cristina Zaga, Iohanna Nicenboim, Elisa Giaccardi, Joseph Lindley, Arne Berger, Claudia Garduño García, Laura Forlano Jun 2026

More-Than-Human Design In The Real World: Resistance, Regeneration, And Radical Solidarity, Cristina Zaga, Iohanna Nicenboim, Elisa Giaccardi, Joseph Lindley, Arne Berger, Claudia Garduño García, Laura Forlano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In Capitalocene, humanity faces the intertwined crises of technological advancement and ecological collapse. These urgent challenges require us to question the power structures embedded in design, technology, and society. As a response, More-than-human design (MthD) recognizes the agency, sentience, and mutual influence of nonhuman species, materials, and environments, foregrounding principles of care, reciprocity, and collaborative co-shaping to foster multispecies cohabitation, ecological justice, and planetary well-being. Yet, it remains unclear how MthD can move beyond academia to influence policy, industry, and communities for ecological and social regeneration. Practicing MthD in the real world means proposing different ways of knowing and ways …

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Analysing Language Use In Designing: Practices And Performance, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Lisa Perez Elzey, (Eric) Heng Gu, Nathan Crilly, Terresa Hardaway, Vivek Rao, Peter Lloyd Jun 2026

Analysing Language Use In Designing: Practices And Performance, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Lisa Perez Elzey, (Eric) Heng Gu, Nathan Crilly, Terresa Hardaway, Vivek Rao, Peter Lloyd

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The role of language in designing is manifold, including but not limited to representing all aspects of design, enacting roles in design processes, and establishing shared meaning. With the advent of large language models (LLMs), the role of language has further expanded, affording new ways to perform and represent design. This theme track presents five papers that explore how designers use language and language models. We identify themes that cut across these papers to show how language can be used, constrained, adapted, and supplemented in different stages, processes, and domains of designing.

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Sketching Futures: Cultural Dimensions, Pedagogies, And Digital Transitions, Bryan F. Howell, Janwillem Hoftijzer, Mauricio Novoa Muñoz, Amos Scully Jun 2026

Sketching Futures: Cultural Dimensions, Pedagogies, And Digital Transitions, Bryan F. Howell, Janwillem Hoftijzer, Mauricio Novoa Muñoz, Amos Scully

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This track gathers eighteen papers that consider the work of the sketch and sketching in a moment of accelerating cultural and technological change. Across three sessions: (1) Sketching for Thinking, Expression, and Information; (2) Visualising Narratives; and (3) Sketching & Generative AI, the authors examine analogue, hybrid, immersive, and AI-augmented practices to reveal how design sketching is evolving and rendering the seen and the unseen, the personal and the cultural, the speculative and the practical. Building on the conversation begun at DRS 2024 conference, this year's papers address cultural specificity, decolonial and feminist methodologies, narrative-driven generation, and the pedagogies that …

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Reframing Practice: Architectural Design Research And The Expanding Role Of The Architect, Manuela Triggianese, Juan Sádaba, Lee Moreau, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Kees Kaan, Georg Vrachliotis, María Risueño Jun 2026

Reframing Practice: Architectural Design Research And The Expanding Role Of The Architect, Manuela Triggianese, Juan Sádaba, Lee Moreau, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Kees Kaan, Georg Vrachliotis, María Risueño

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Architecture extends far beyond the design of buildings and cities, engaging with environmental, technological, and societal challenges. As practice evolves, so must the research that supports it. This theme track examines architecture’s expanding role in collaboration, communication, and service, positioning it as a research-driven discipline and a tool for inquiry, innovation, and responsiveness to communities and stakeholders. Operating across systems, social processes, and technological infrastructures, architecture is increasingly understood as an interdisciplinary practice. The track strengthens Architectural Design Research by addressing its evolving methodologies and its role in knowledge production. Contributions explore co-creation, artificial intelligence, data as design material, and …

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Design Research During And After Artificial Intelligence, Matthew Lee-Smith, Jesse Josua Benjamin, Mafalda Gamboa, Stephan Wensveen Jun 2026

Design Research During And After Artificial Intelligence, Matthew Lee-Smith, Jesse Josua Benjamin, Mafalda Gamboa, Stephan Wensveen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The shift in design research caused by the escalation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking considerable space in the field. In a mixture of potential and undeniable risks, we looked for a blend of critique and practice, of analysis and foresight. In the set of papers to be published, we see a span of precisely that: reflexive re-orientations in the evaluation of what AI is doing to design, mirrored in current practices; and speculations on the after (en)during AI. In this editorial, we contextualize the research in the world it was produced in, exposing the during that unfolded hand-in-hand with …

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Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains In Designing And Researching For Transformation, Femke Coops, Marysol Ortega Pallanez, Joanna Boehnert, Idil Gaziulusoy, Silvana Juri, Anja Overdiek, Alma Leora Culén, Ida Nilstad Pettersen, Dan Lockton, Emma Dewberry, Fabrizio Ceschin Jun 2026

Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains In Designing And Researching For Transformation, Femke Coops, Marysol Ortega Pallanez, Joanna Boehnert, Idil Gaziulusoy, Silvana Juri, Anja Overdiek, Alma Leora Culén, Ida Nilstad Pettersen, Dan Lockton, Emma Dewberry, Fabrizio Ceschin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The theme track ‘Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains in Designing and Researching for Transformation’ at DRS2026 includes 12 papers that explore the growing pains, the frictions, contradictions, and (unresolved) dilemmas that characterise designing for transitions and transformations including tensions around epistemic challenges, transdisciplinarity, and participation, and the responses designers/design researchers are exploring to meet them. This editorial describes key growing pains addressed in the papers, while highlighting the different response to dilemmas in transition work. Through reflecting on the contributions to the track, several opportunities for future work arise as the field matures.

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Play Design Materials: Entangled Matter And Making, Helle Marie Skovbjerg, Mathias Poulsen, Tuuli Mattelmäki, Sofie Kinch, Hyunjae Daniel Shin, Ricardo Conçalves Dutra, Eun Sun Park, Louise Ravnløkke, Jennifer Ann Skriver Jun 2026

Play Design Materials: Entangled Matter And Making, Helle Marie Skovbjerg, Mathias Poulsen, Tuuli Mattelmäki, Sofie Kinch, Hyunjae Daniel Shin, Ricardo Conçalves Dutra, Eun Sun Park, Louise Ravnløkke, Jennifer Ann Skriver

DRS Biennial Conference Series

To design for play is to engage with materials, whether physical, virtual, symbolic, or ephemeral. In design for play we don’t just select materials; we shape and are shaped by them. Yet within design research, we must explore how materials do play, not merely support it. This theme track invites contributions that consider materials not as passive tools, but as active collaborators in a relational field where matter, mood, meaning, affect, and politics entangle. We are interested in how materials act not only as substrates for play, but as collaborators, provocateurs, and agents in the making of play, relationships, and …

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Design In The Wild, Peiyao Cheng, Gianluca Carella, Sylvia Xihui Liu, Cees De Bont Jun 2026

Design In The Wild, Peiyao Cheng, Gianluca Carella, Sylvia Xihui Liu, Cees De Bont

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The DRS2026 track titled “Design for business in the wild” examines how design operates within business contexts shaped by uncertainty, resource constraints, organizational complexity, and technological change. Building on long-standing discussions of design’s contribution to innovation, differentiation, user experience, and strategic advantage, the track reflects a shift from demonstrating design’s business relevance to examining the conditions through which design value becomes actionable in practice. The following contributions are organized around three themes: Entrepreneurial Ecologies, Organizational Frictions, and Data, AI & Foresight. Drawing on 12 accepted papers, the track highlights how design for business is increasingly examined through its situated relations …

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Situated Pedagogies For Public Design Through Genai, Anca Serbanescu, Noor Murteza Jun 2026

Situated Pedagogies For Public Design Through Genai, Anca Serbanescu, Noor Murteza

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores the integration of Generative AI (GenAI) in design education through the lens of public design learning. Drawing on critical pedagogy and a situated classroom case study, it examines how GenAI reshapes the epistemic and ontological journey of becoming a public designer. The study foregrounds ethical, cognitive, and systemic challenges associated with human–AI co-creativity, highlighting the pedagogical implications for cultivating political sensitivity, collaborative reflexive capabilities, and design agency. Through an in-class activity involving persona co-creation with GenAI, the paper illustrates how students engage with plural and contextually grounded design practices. It concludes by advocating for inclusive, reflexive, and …

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Reading Against The Grain: Ubuntu, Sankofa, And Rhythm As Pedagogical Infrastructures In First-Year Design Education, Yaw Ofosu-Asare Jun 2026

Reading Against The Grain: Ubuntu, Sankofa, And Rhythm As Pedagogical Infrastructures In First-Year Design Education, Yaw Ofosu-Asare

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) study examines how African philosophies can function as pedagogical infrastructures, not decorative add-ons, in first-year design education. Through a 12-week introductory studio with 25 students meeting twice weekly (2.5 hours per session), I embedded Ubuntu (relational being), Sankofa (retrieving wisdom from the past), and rhythm (cyclical temporality) into the course structure. Learning artefacts comprise studio materials, anonymised teaching feedback collected as part of routine class activities, and my own teaching observations reviewed thematically around space, time, and feedback relations. Observed teaching indicators suggested higher participation in critique (average peer comments per student rising …

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Bodies In Play: Queering Ai, Sport, And Medicine Through Design, Felix Kosok Jun 2026

Bodies In Play: Queering Ai, Sport, And Medicine Through Design, Felix Kosok

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Queerness in design often operates from the margins, yet to remain transformative it must also confront the heteronormative hegemonies embedded in central societal infrastructures. This paper examines how queer design intervenes in the fields of artificial intelligence, sport, and healthcare, identifying three strategies through which design can challenge normative systems: disruption, subversion, and circumvention. Through a comparative analysis of three case studies – Christensen and Conradi’s AI/IA experiments with queer artificial intelligence, Gabriel Fontana’s sport design projects Multiform and Sidelined, and the queer-led digital health platform Every Health – the paper explores how design practices reconfigure infrastructures that regulate bodies, …

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Habitability In Extreme Environments: A Participatory Design Approach To Assess Wellbeing., Efcharis Gourounti, Marianthi Liapi, Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis Jun 2026

Habitability In Extreme Environments: A Participatory Design Approach To Assess Wellbeing., Efcharis Gourounti, Marianthi Liapi, Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates habitability in extreme environment habitats by examining how occupants contribute to the evolution of functional infrastructures into human-centered environments that support wellbeing. Through fieldwork at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base (BAB), the study combines architectural on-site observations with interviews, questionnaires, and participatory workshops. Three trends emerged from the combined material, highlighting the importance of regulating social interaction through semi-private spaces, the value of flexible spatial organization across work and leisure, and the role of personalization in supporting emotional stability, helping occupants claim the base as a lived habitat over time. By using occupants’ evaluations and spatial adaptations as …

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Scaffolding Oceans Futures: Design For Embedded, Embodied, And Emergent Thinking, Gillian Russell, Katherine Reilly, Jihyun Park, Lauren Thu Jun 2026

Scaffolding Oceans Futures: Design For Embedded, Embodied, And Emergent Thinking, Gillian Russell, Katherine Reilly, Jihyun Park, Lauren Thu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Citizen science and citizen data are widely used to engage with anthropogenic effects such as pollution and species loss. However, their focus on data gathering and objectivization can result in dispassionate learning. Futures scaffolding offers an alternative design approach that reimagines how environmental knowledge can be generated, experienced, and materialized. Positioned within co-speculative design, this practice uses design methods to make visible what data represents and to cultivate ocean futures. This paper mobilizes a workshop kit called Monsters of Marine Debris (MMD) as an object of design to illustrate futures scaffolding. MMD makes data a source of futures-making rather than …

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Symbiotic Behaviors And Strategic Design: A Situated Participatory Framework For Organizations Led By/For Older Adults, Juliana Gómez, Mariana González, Tala Pedraza, Laura Sofía Riveros Jun 2026

Symbiotic Behaviors And Strategic Design: A Situated Participatory Framework For Organizations Led By/For Older Adults, Juliana Gómez, Mariana González, Tala Pedraza, Laura Sofía Riveros

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Café Séneca, the largest affinity chapter of the Uniandinos Alumni Association in Colombia, is dedicated to the wellbeing of older adults and led by retired members. Despite its popularity, the chapter lacked a strategic design structure, relying on inertia to shape its activities and limiting its ability to evolve sustainably. This paper presents a reflective case study of SenSilver, a situated participatory strategic design framework developed for organizations led by and for older adults. Combining business, positive, and empowerment-oriented design with biological, social, and psychological dimensions of aging, the framework was applied through a research-consultancy process with Café Séneca. The …

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Cultivating Careful Design Responses To Homelessness Through Practice, Theory And Education, Jodi Sturge, Charlotte Persijn, Lynn Wens, Noor Fleerackers, Dotte Van Den Elshout, Stephanie C.J. Kohnle, Timon J.H. De Groot Jun 2026

Cultivating Careful Design Responses To Homelessness Through Practice, Theory And Education, Jodi Sturge, Charlotte Persijn, Lynn Wens, Noor Fleerackers, Dotte Van Den Elshout, Stephanie C.J. Kohnle, Timon J.H. De Groot

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Homelessness is a public health problem worldwide. System-wide failures often hinder solutions to this complex issue. In design and architecture education, the issue of homelessness is rarely brought into the curriculum. This paper describes how practice and theory related to homelessness can be applied to design education. First, a practice-based workshop was developed to enhance student reflexivity through exploring biases toward homelessness and applying trauma-informed theory to redesign products, services, and systems for homeless populations. Secondly, two case studies applied the theory deductively and critically reflected upon trauma-informed principles to housing and homeless design projects in hindsight and foresight. Our …

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We Found Planet B. What Does This Mean For Design?, Candela Guyot, Victoria Rodriguez Schon Jun 2026

We Found Planet B. What Does This Mean For Design?, Candela Guyot, Victoria Rodriguez Schon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Planet B emerges as a practice-based-fiction responding ironically to the slogan “There is no Planet B.” The project speculates on the discovery of an alternate planet and the task of replicating Planet A under the principle “if it looks the same, it is the same.” Through absurd protocols for selecting the perfect rock, flower, and stick, the experience enacted a satire of technoscientific control. Developed within the School of Materialist Research’s exploration of Nature and Artifice, it asks: what sensory, political, and aesthetic implications would the discovery of a Planet B bring to the design practice? Children spontaneously took over …

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From Commodity To Commons: Creating Local Eco-Systems For The Design Of Sustainable Nhs Garments In Scotland, Lewis Urquhart, Paul Rodgers, Niki Taylor, Euan Winton, Lucy Welsh, Sophia Murden Jun 2026

From Commodity To Commons: Creating Local Eco-Systems For The Design Of Sustainable Nhs Garments In Scotland, Lewis Urquhart, Paul Rodgers, Niki Taylor, Euan Winton, Lucy Welsh, Sophia Murden

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates the transformation of NHS Scotland garment systems through a design-led, commons-based localist framework that challenges prevailing globalised procurement models. Drawing on co-design methodologies and sustainable material innovation, this project repositions garments - specifically surgical caps and scrubs - as relational artefacts embedded within systems of care, identity, and ecological responsibility. Collaborations with healthcare professionals, designers, and regional manufacturers have yielded prototypes utilising regenerative fibres such as lyocell and linen, made locally within Scotland. These interventions demonstrate the potential of commons-design to foster civic engagement, decentralised production, and circular economies. By embedding garment systems within local ecologies and …

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Democratizing The Newsroom: A Participatory Design Approach To Empower Citizen-Participatory Journalism And Civic Knowledge, Sangyun Lee, Kyungho Lee Jun 2026

Democratizing The Newsroom: A Participatory Design Approach To Empower Citizen-Participatory Journalism And Civic Knowledge, Sangyun Lee, Kyungho Lee

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Local news sustains democratic life by connecting citizens to community issues and fostering public deliberation. Yet the global phenomenon of Local News Desertification—the decline of trustworthy local media—has weakened civic discourse, civic knowledge, and collective belonging in local areas. Citizen-participatory journalism enables citizens to report and interpret local issues; however, conventional newsroom hierarchies and insufficient support for community participants without formal journalistic training hinder its democratic potential. This study frames that tension as a Participatory Design (PD) problem concerning power and imbalanced agency in sociotechnical news systems. Through a PD process, the study develops a citizen–AI participatory journalism model that …

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Infrastructuring Transitional Bio-Materialities: Case Of The Biomakerstudio, Ena Naito Jun 2026

Infrastructuring Transitional Bio-Materialities: Case Of The Biomakerstudio, Ena Naito

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Designers today are actively engaging with experimentation and innovation of bio-materials derived from living matter, foregrounding the interrelationship between biological processes, material design, and ecological responsibility. In this context, workspaces that provide conditions to design with living organisms become especially crucial to leverage their transitional material potentials. Grounded upon a 24-month research-through-design study, this paper discusses the ground-up infrastructuring work of establishing a biodesign workspace to support designing with living matter in a university setting. I highlight the emergent nature of such endeavour, including the continuous alignment, containment, and care and maintenance work necessary for growing a provisional intervention into …

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Human-Centred Digital Twin Design For Elderly Care: Addressing Comorbidity And Wellbeing, Nan Sheng, Emmanuel Tskeleves, Paul Cureton, Qi Chen Jun 2026

Human-Centred Digital Twin Design For Elderly Care: Addressing Comorbidity And Wellbeing, Nan Sheng, Emmanuel Tskeleves, Paul Cureton, Qi Chen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

China's rapidly ageing urban population faces complex mental health challenges, particularly with comorbid conditions. Current elderly care is nonpersonalised and unresponsive to support holistic wellbeing. To address the challenges of inclusive, responsive, and adaptable senior care, this study suggests a human-centred digital twin framework that incorporates service ecosystem design. This study employs a human-centred digital twin design methodology based on service ecosystem theory, focusing on how digital twins can mediate between users’ lived experiences and service innovation. The findings from the literature review and design practice indicate that digital twin technology has potential foster older adults’ life experience, social inclusion, …

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Images Of Humans In Public Sector Design, Mieke Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, Jennie Winhall Jun 2026

Images Of Humans In Public Sector Design, Mieke Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, Jennie Winhall

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Human-centred design is an essential element of the application of design in public and social sectors. What has remained largely unexpressed in the field is the way in which design is influenced by how we see humans, and how that is informed by our worldviews and dominant paradigms. In this conceptual paper, we investigate five common views on humans – user, worker, fallible individual, consumer, and whole and social being - based on four dimensions. The dimensions include 1) depth, 2) personal focus, 3) social focus, and 4) level of agency. Based on a case study of youth unemployment, we …

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People-Centred Public Innovation: A Co-Design Model Between University And State, Maria De Los Angeles Ferrer-Mavarez, Erwin Robert Aguirre-Villalobos, Macarena Valenzuela-Zubiaur, Ronald Enrique Mendez-Sanchez, Hector Torres-Bustos Jun 2026

People-Centred Public Innovation: A Co-Design Model Between University And State, Maria De Los Angeles Ferrer-Mavarez, Erwin Robert Aguirre-Villalobos, Macarena Valenzuela-Zubiaur, Ronald Enrique Mendez-Sanchez, Hector Torres-Bustos

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article presents a methodological model for innovation in public services centred on a deep understanding of service users’ expectations and needs. The model was developed through a University–State co‑design process involving the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana and Chile’s Government Lab (Laboratorio de Gobierno). An applied research and collaborative design methodology was employed, using a mixed‑methods (qualitative and quantitative) approach. Data were collected through semi‑structured interviews and documentary review, complemented by co‑creation workshops and expert validation sessions. The resulting model enables the identification and closure of gaps between institutional perceptions and the public’s actual needs. Although its application is still at …

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Resilient Design Pedagogies: Examining Sustainability's Translation Into Contemporary Design Education, Flavia Alice Mameli Jun 2026

Resilient Design Pedagogies: Examining Sustainability's Translation Into Contemporary Design Education, Flavia Alice Mameli

DRS Biennial Conference Series

What is the status quo of contemporary design education in the context of sustainability as a holistic and timely training, a binding professional ethos, and materialised everyday practice for future designers? This research investigates how contemporary tertiary design education is responding to polycrisis discourse and the multilaterally demanded paradigm shift towards sustainability. This includes a critical reflection on the political dimension of the term itself. A mixed-methods approach, combining systematic programme mapping, discourse analytical case studies of tertiary design education, and interviews with educators, investigates the translation of sustainability rhetoric into pedagogical practice across design and architecture education worldwide. A …

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Exploring Future Smellscapes With Smellwalks, Zuzana Neupauerová, Simone Ashby, Supraja Sankaran Jun 2026

Exploring Future Smellscapes With Smellwalks, Zuzana Neupauerová, Simone Ashby, Supraja Sankaran

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study examines how present-day smell encounters stimulate participants to reflect on possible futures and those scents that are emergent or susceptible to becoming transformed or lost altogether. We describe our speculative design setup whereby participants assumed the persona of an olfactory researcher from the year 2100, armed with a smell passport and set of vials, and tasked with time-traveling back to 2025 to capture scent samples. Smellwalk observations span three themes: environmental awareness of scent, the functional role of future scents, and social and cultural dimensions of olfaction. We discuss those scents which participants found to be particularly salient …

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