Category: Design engagement
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Celebrating a Decade of Strategic Partnership between The Glass-House Community Led Design and the Open University
Guest blog post by Sophia de Sousa, Chief Executive of The Glass-House Community Led Design Last month, I had the immense pleasure of watching my long-time collaborator and now dear friend, Professor Theodore Zamenopoulos, give his Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Citizen-led Design at The Open University. Whilst it was an academic lecture about collaborative […]
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Teaching ‘Climate Creativity’
A few months ago, I was invited by Kathmandu University as a guest lecturer to run a workshop on Climate Creativity for their final year BA students in Design and Fine Art. The three-week-long workshop was part of their Studio Practice module and through a practice-based approach aimed at generating reflection on the relationship between […]
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Dare to Hope: a box to support creative ageing
As we grow older, the opportunities to keep growing our creative capabilities and participate in social, cultural and economic life are reduced. Research suggests that active and creative living is a key factor for the health and wellbeing of individuals as they are ageing, but also a key factor for the quality of life and […]
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Cross-pollination Resources
Over the last year the Cross Pollination research project, part of the Placed-Based Research Programme hub, worked in several locations to see how the Cross Pollination approach could enable local organisations to enable their own communities. One of the key objectives for this particular research project was to develop ways to cascade and enable cross-pollination […]
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The Secret Genius of Modern Life
Members of the the Design Group have been working on an OU / BBC co-production called The Secret Genius of Modern Life, a series that uncovers the secrets behind the miraculous technologies of the modern world, revealing the mind-blowing stories behind their invention. Derek Jones and David Sharp were the academic consultants and it’s probably […]
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Celebrating our Gurnos
On a lovely sunny Saturday at the end of September, people on the outskirts of Merthyr got together to celebrate the place and community of Gurnos. The celebration was the outcome of several activities in partnership with the Open University in Wales as part of two different projects: the Creu Cyffro Community Renewal Funded project, […]
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U101 – A Triumphant Return to Face-Face Tutorials
Module U101: Design Thinking in the 21st Century, has always had, since its launch in 2010, a tradition of running face to face tutorials (day schools) to augment the online module delivery and tutorials. While the student attendance at these events had seen a gradual decline in recent years, nevertheless, from those that did regularly […]
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Design@50 – Design in a Time of Climate Emergency
The latest Design@50 event focused on the topic Design in a Time of Climate Emergency, featuring reflections and discussion between Prof Stephen Peake, Dr Emma Dewberry, Dr Alessandra Campoli and Dr Derek Jones. The event also featured archive footage from the first Open University course that introduced design, connecting it to far broader issues around […]
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What did YOU do in the War (against Covid19)? Engaging a response to the covid pandemic through visual communication.
It seems we might just, finally, be starting to win our battle against the scourge of covid. In fighting an invisible enemy that has had such a devastatingly tangible impact, it is not surprising that the rhetoric has sometimes carried metaphors of war. COBRA meetings in Whitehall and the Queen urging the country to remain […]
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Growing cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking
The UK Government recently announced its Levelling Up plan aiming to ‘spread opportunity more equally across the UK’, and to narrow the social and economic disparities that exist across different places. Part of this plan is to give more power to local governments to regenerate their own town and cities. Placemaking is back on the agenda, […]