Matter of transformation : sculpting a valuable tomorrow

Our society is facing a number of major challenges such as an ageing population, economic recession and limited natural resources, which require disruptive solutions in order to realise behavioural change on a societal level. Designing is perfectly suited to play an active role in this process, since designing is about localising (making a matter concrete), questioning (reflection on its quality) and opening up (expanding its sense) (Sennett, 2008). In order to sculpt this valuable tomorrow, we have to decide upon the direction and the underlying paradigm of this transformation. In my lecture I propose a framework for open, phenomenological design to support personal, social and societal transformation. I show that designing for transformation has consequences not only for the designed system, products and services but also for our way of designing and researching, our educational system and the collaboration between different stakeholders.