www.systemic-design.net

1. DESIGN
NOW
CO-CREATION
AMONG
DESIGN STUDENTS
AND
REFUGEES
DIPLOMA & beyond :D
NILOUFAR GHARAVI
FOR / WITH
AHO
Institute of Design
Main Supervisors
Linda Blaasvær
Birger Sevaldson
(Systems Oriented Design)
A mix between
System Oriented Design
and Co-design
in the context of
Transit situations,

2. INDUSTRIAL
ENTREPRENURSHIP
CULTURAL
ENTREPRENURSHIP
COORDINATION
background

3. MORE
THAN60
MILLION
PERSONS
FORCED
TO FLEE
beginning of the story

4. Figures from the UNHCR (2015),
revealed that in the first six months
of 2015 ,137000 refugees and
migrants attempted to enter the EU,
a rise of %83 on the same period in
2014.
As the UNHCR (2015) notes this has
placed enormous pressure on the
European country’s infrastructure
and made it increasingly difficult for
refugees to access, work, shelter and
education.
beginning of the story

5. Visiting camps around EU
based on my personal
motivation which gave me
a sense of the different
situations with both
problems and opportunity
arenas.
Then it was in one of my
visits in a camp, in one of
the shelters that I saw:
beginning of the story

6. very creative tools/objects lying down on the
floor built by couple of inhabitants inside the
facility.
Thinking deeper and discussing it with themselves brought me these
reasons for this creation:
• Need of having a tool for a function
that they were looking for
• Having very few financial resources to
buy the needed tools.
• Having the background as craftsman
and engineer
• The camp’s surrounding being almost
a dumping area for left overs
• Having lots of idle time to think & do
Coming back from this experience, I kept comparing the mentioned
approach with what and how we do things and learn at design schools
and academies.
beginning of the story

7. How can design help the
refugees to be considered
resourceful instead of
needy and provide
solutions to value and
activate their capabilities?
Questions

8. ARCHITECTURE &
DESIGN
STUDENTS
REFUGEES &
ASYLUM SEEKERS
IN CAMPS
• What if we bring the students to the
refugees and help them benefit from
their different perspectives and skills
in thinking and doing things?
• What if they co-create some required
products for the camps?
• Later on, what if we could invite
industries to mass produce some of
the creations and have a brand out of
it. A selling brand which is carrying its
story of production with it all around
the world, inviting others to do as such
in their own fields.
Also the income would be back to the
refugees themselves to help them
having a bit of extra salary out of their
own work and possibly, the profit
could go further to financially help
with the conditions inside the facilities.
Questions

9. EXPECTED OUTCOME
• Design and implement series of
collaborative workshops/pilots for design
and built activities together with refugees
and design students.
• Design of guidelines for improving today
services
• Design of future journey (scenarios and
visual explanations)
• System mapping of stakeholders and
connection to users and influencing
actors.
• Design and possibly build some of the
Products in 1:1 scale. Products would
be simple for daily use in the camps.
• Making visual communication (Film,
animations, illustrations, 3Drendering, etc)
project outomes

10. moving around with my questions
Happening now!
Bringing 9 refugees with high skill in
computer science and data analysis to a
workshop in DNB together with the
employees to work on 4 main projects
that the bank is dealing with currently.
IN PROGRESS, IN CASE
DNB PROJECT TOGETHER WITH REFUGEES gathering 120 changemakers in a
workshop at the Norwegian parliament,
to turn what many perceived as a
refugee crisis into an opportunity for
change. The design-driven initiative
across sectors, disciplines and levels of
government, and for its second
workshop also included 27 asylum
seekers.
GUTS TO CHANGEGUTS TO
CHANGE

11. moving around with my questions
Ikea creates 200 jobs for Syrian refugees
with its new series of handwoven rugs
and textiles set to roll out in 2019.
Production of the limited line will be
based in Jordan, which has accepted
more than 655,000 refugees since war
broke out in neighboring Syria in 2011.
https://www.ikeafoundation.org/
JOINT PROJECT AMONG IKEA FOUNDATION
AND NRC IN JORDAN
Greece based innovation studio special-
izing in circular design, environmental
engineering & big-data digital applica-
tions for the humanitarian sector. In
response to the European refugee crisis,
LATRA established a technology driven
makerspace in the KARA TEPE Refugee
Camp in Lesvos-Greece, where it imple-
ments innovation-led, open source pro-
jects directly on the field.
http://www.latra.gr/
LATRA, BUILD THE WORL BETTER
Architecture and design
organisation facilitating skills sharing.
Supports multi-disciplinary projects in
transit situations.
Based in Mytilene centre on Lesvos
(Greece) where they host workshops,
classes and events for both displaced
persons and locals.
http://www.displaceddesigners.org/
OFFICE OF DISPLACED DESIGNERS
A non-profit organisation run by
architects aiming to fight prejudices
against socially excluded groups and
help improve their life quality using the
architectural toolbox.
Their core values are end-user
participation and hands-on actions
together with refugees and asylum
seekers.
MAKERS’ HUB

12. second phase
A
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C D
E I
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H F
J
K
M
Q
R
S
T
U
W
V
X
Y
ZN
O
P
L

13. UDI Project here at SOD
moving around with my questions

14. third phase

15. third phase

16. CO-CREATION
COLLABORATION
FUTURE SCENARIO
summary