Hasselt University
Updated: 15/04/2018
Solution provider
BelgiumHasselt Universitys' research group Spatial Capacity Building advances research in participatory design. We start from an explicit societal concern. It is important to understand how the stake of diverse groups of society is taken into account and what can still be shared by a collective. More specifically, we critically debate and research the public value of different types of spatial infrastructures (e.g. residential subdivisions) by questioning, developing and testing types of spatial interventions and policies as to increase the public value of these infrastructures.
We advance, explore and experiment with the concept, process and method of participatory design. We use different approaches to understand, connect, reflect and act on the public value of everyday spatial infrastructures. In these processes we pay great attention to people’s collective capabilities to engage in the – often complex - discussion about public infrastructures. We do this through mapping perspectives on the public, materializing the public value of spatial infrastructures (e.g. by prototyping or via the approach of live projects), playfully reflecting on the public value (e.g. via serious games) or collectively acting with communities in the daily space on issues of public concern (e.g. via living labs).
Our research processes have long-term aims and involve long-term engagements in the daily context of communities. However, they are driven by short term projects with clear design outcomes to allow diverse groups to relate to processes in tangible, understandable ways. In that sense, we work with government organisations (e.g. cities or regional governments), private partners (e.g. companies), cultural partners, NGO’s and of course, citizens and citizen groups.