Ways of Drifting—Five Methods of Experimentation in Research Through Design

The current linear use of plastic products follows a take, make and waste process. Commonly used by large scale industries, including the commercial fishing industry, this process results in approximately 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean every year. While the fishing industry supplies livelihoods, a valuable food source and financial capital to millions of people worldwide, it’s also a significant contributor to the ocean plastics crisis. Without effective recycling schemes, an estimated 640,000 tonnes of plastic fishing gear is abandoned, lost or discarded within the ocean every year. New Zealand is no exception to this problem, as China’s waste import ban, as well as a lack of local recycling infrastructures, has resulted in the country’s commercial fishing gear polluting local coastlines as well as islands in the pacific. With the only other option for the plastic fishing gear being landfill, there is a critical need for circular initiatives that upcycle used plastic fishing gear locally into eco-innovative designs. This research examines the issue by investigating how used buoys, aquaculture ropes and fishing nets from New Zealand’s fishing company ‘Sanford’ may be upcycled into eco-innovative designs through distributed manufacturing technologies. It introduces the idea of the circular economy, where plastic fishing gear can be reused within a technical cycle and explores how 3D printing could be part of the solution as it provides local initiatives, low material and energy usage and customisation. Overall, the research follows the research through design based on design criteria approach. Where materials, designs and systems are created under the refined research criteria, to ensure the plastic fishing gear samples are upcycled effectively into eco-innovative designs through 3D printing. The tangible outputs of this research demonstrate how a circular upcycling system that uses distributed manufacturing technologies can create eco-innovative designs and provide a responsible disposal scheme for plastic fishing gear. It provides a new and more sustainable waste management scheme that could be applied to a range of plastic waste streams and diverts materials from entering the environment by continuously reusing them within the economy.

Download Full-text

Trouble in Happy Valley. The documentation of a research through design collaborative project between a postgraduate Atelier at the Manchester School of Architecture and the local community of a small town

Architectural Research Addressing Societal Challenges ◽

10.1201/9781315226255-164 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

S Stone ◽

L Sanderson

Keyword(s):

Local Community ◽

Small Town ◽

Collaborative Project ◽

Research Through Design ◽

Manchester School ◽

Happy Valley

Download Full-text

Design and research in architecture: common points

Joelho Revista de Cultura Arquitectonica ◽

10.14195/1647-8681_4_56 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

José Miguel Neto Viana Brás Rodrigues

Keyword(s):

Academic Education ◽

Research Through Design ◽

Unique Aspect ◽

History Of ◽

The Subject ◽

Lack Of Knowledge

If, at least since the crises of the academic education, teaching architecture through design seems an evidence, yet we can’t say the same about the research through design. This modality – which, we should recognize, is still taking the first steps into a world that is strange to it and hostile, even for a lack of knowledge and ignorance - have a history of weight among the treatise History. Think, for instead, in Serlio, but in particular in Palladio, for whom the subject of his "treatise" included – strangely, in the eyes of some, even today! - simultaneously: i.) the ancients, ii.) some contemporary and iii.) their own projects (residing here, perhaps, the most unique aspect of their approach). One of the main forms of resistance to the research through design has its roots certainly in a methodological dissent that distinguishes architecture from other areas of knowledge: its natural and unrestrained vocation to action that often leads the charge of moralism, not by chance. In this sense, the architectural thought differs from other forms of thoughts that don’t depend on the action as a link of its intelligibility.

Download Full-text

More Stamina, a Gamified mHealth Solution for Persons with Multiple Sclerosis: Research Through Design

10.2196/jmu.v6i3.9437 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Guido Giunti ◽

Vasiliki Mylonopoulou ◽

Octavio Rivera Romero

Keyword(s):

Multiple Sclerosis ◽

Research Through Design

Download Full-text

An Absolute, Liberal Monument: Investigating the Potential of Group Renovation for Cohousing in Wellington's Inner-City Suburbs

10.26686/wgtn.17005915.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Katherine Jane Walker

Keyword(s):

Inner City ◽

Housing Stock ◽

Social Situation ◽

Vital Role ◽

Building Stock ◽

Alternative Housing ◽

Research Through Design ◽

Physical Form ◽

Design Case Study ◽

The One

Increasingly divergent housing needs together with dilapidated housing stock requires us to consider upgrading many inner-city suburban areas. Renovations to individual dwellings rarely take advantage of the opportunity to develop density, maximize the use of green space, pool economic and social resources, and to share costly but necessary infrastructural changes while retaining or reinvigorating neighbourhood character. The rhetoric of the Moderns and their attitude to buildings of character is still with us, to the detriment of the suburban realm. Attempts to address these concerns have resulted in reductive, generic, commodified space that allows little scope for flexible use by different social groupings. By tracing Denise-Scott Brown’s canonical arguments regarding the place of social sensitivity through the work of contemporary architects Pier Vittorio Aureli and Alexander D’Hooghe, together with investigation of how shared domestic space can be ordered, bounded and framed for a variety of heterogeneous privacies, a built proposition which adds to the formal quality of the inner-city suburbs is developed. This new kind of integrated, shared dwelling can be viewed as a Rossian monument, at once an embodiment of the ‘idea of the city’ as well as discrete, absolute, architectural product allowing the inhabitants as individuals or households a space which can be taken ownership of in a liberal spirit. This thesis elaborates upon discussions between too-often separated realms of discourse that Scott-Brown identified: that of physical form generation on the one hand, and social aims on the other. By using architectural research through design, a proposition for an alternative housing model is proposed. The specific formal and social situation of the building stock under examination form a point of departure alongside recent trends in alternative dwelling arrangements. The point is made that there is a vital role for the place of design in the housing market as a way to shape and redefine statistical analysis of living styles and standards. The design case study is an example of a specific proposition which, rather than being a replicable typology, is an example of the kinds of choices that should be available to suit current demographic changes and social desires.

Download Full-text

In a Split Second

10.26686/wgtn.17142143.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Wen Jun Zheng

Keyword(s):

New Technologies ◽

Data Availability ◽

Spastic Cerebral Palsy ◽

Close Range Photogrammetry ◽

Research Through Design ◽

Vulnerable Patients ◽

Surface Measurements ◽

Close Range ◽

Speed Accuracy ◽

Ankle Foot Orthotics

Children and adolescents with the medical condition Spastic Cerebral Palsy (CP) may develop an abnormal gait, resulting in walking difficulties. This may be helped overtime with noninvasive Ankle Foot Orthotics (AFOs) braces, such as Solid Ankle Foot Orthotics (SAFOs), customised to suit patients needs. However, the acquisition of patient measurements for customisation and manufacturing itself is manual, slow, intrusive, subjective, and requires specialist skills to accomplish. This can commonly result in negative experiences for patients and reduce the access to healthcare to many people. This can especially affect vulnerable patients such as children or adolescents with Spastic CP. Research has identified that a 3D digital system that scans patients’ limbs and prints orthotics has the potential to improve the AFO creation process through speed, accuracy, and data availability. However, this system requires new technologies to fulfill its required performance, including a reliable way to acquire the three-dimensional shape of the limbs. As such, a close-range photogrammetry system was identified as a fast and accurate alternative for producing surface measurements through 3D models compiled from images taken simultaneously. This research portfolio explores the design development of such a system by identifying areas of improvement, barriers, and solutions in a multi-method iterative research-through-design approach and pragmatic design framework. The aim was to achieve quick and accurate acquisition of a patient’s’ lower half measurements, while focusing on the experience of users during system interaction. The final output is a formally evaluated close-range photogrammetry scanner prototype, that created a non-intrusive and accurate alternative to traditional methods via quick and detailed capturing of patient surface measurements for later analysis. While also facilitating the needs of two user groups: vulnerable patients, and operating technician, to better their user experience.

Download Full-text