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Expansive design: design with contradictions
Frederick van Amstel, PhD Researcher
Construction Management & Engineering Dept.

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Healthcare design is based on representations of activity...
2Plans for a new Medical Imaging Center.

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…that may not match the future activity!
3Plans for a new Medical Imaging Center.

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Expansive design anticipates the future of activity.
4Plans for a new Medical Imaging Center.

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People who actually do the activity participate in design…
5Workshop about a new Medical Imaging Center.

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…expanding their possibilities for activity.
6Second workshop for a new Medical Imaging Center.

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Technical problems
 How to mediate participation in design?
 How to design tools to support mediation?
 How to represent activity in space models?
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Philosophical problem
-Why… doing… that?
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• A philosophical problem does not have a technical solution,
but can inspire technical solutions
• Henri Lefebvre problematized space and activity

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Problems stem from contradictions
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Images are
misleading.
Art is
useless.
Rene Magritte

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Contradictions are concrete, not abstract (out of context)
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Principal contradiction
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“Where then is the principal contradiction to be found [in capitalism]?
Between the capacity to conceive and treat space on a global (or
worldwide) scale on the one hand, and its fragmentation by a multiplicity of
procedures or processes, all fragmentary themselves, on the other.”
(Lefebvre, 1991:355)

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Homogeneization and fragmentation of the body
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Marilene
Oliver
Leonardo da Vinci
500 years

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Homogeneization and fragmentation of care
13Layouts collected from the Medical Imaging Center project.
The forces
pushing change
are not visible.

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Designing with my “contradictory” tool
14Student experiment
Activity is visible
while designing.

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Mapping the design space
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All practitioner’s designs All student’s designs
≈

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Findings
 The design space reproduces the contradictions in activity
 Contradictions are simultaneously cause and effect of design
 If contradictions won’t go away, what can we do?
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-Enjoy life.
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A game fueled by contradictions
18The Expansive Hospital Game

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What students learn from playing the game
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Design problems
are not solved in
the mind.
Design problems
are solved in
social activity.

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What students learn from playing the game
 Socialize the design space (instead of keeping it mental)
 Deal with confrontation
 Create hybrid solutions (different interests, views, techniques)
 Implement hybrid solutions
 Respect individuality
 Keep the collaborative mindset
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My Research Interests
 Participatory Design
 Activity Theory
 Cultural Studies
 Frederick van Amstel f.vanamstel@utwente.nl
 Twitter @fredvanamstel
 http://fredvanamstel.com