Collaborative futuring with and by makers

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© 2014 The Authors. This is an Open Access article. Non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way, is permitted. The moral rights of the named authors have been asserted.

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

School of Arts, Design and Architecture | A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2014

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

209-228

Series

CoDesign, Volume 10, Issue 3-4

Abstract

Maker spaces and maker activities offering access to low-cost digital fabrication equipment are rapidly proliferating, evolving phenomena at the interface of lay and professional design. They also come in many varieties and change fast, presenting a difficult target for, for instance, public authorities, who would like to cater for them but operate in much slower planning cycles. As part of participatory planning of Helsinki Central Library, we experimented with a form of collaborative futuring with and by makers. By drawing elements from both lead-user workshops and participatory design,we conducted a futuring workshop, which allowed us to engage the local maker communities in identifying the issues relevant for a public maker space in 2020. It further engaged the participants in envisioning a smaller prototype maker space and invited them into realising its activities collaboratively. Our results indicate that particularly the information about future solutions was of high relevance, as was the opportunity to trial and elaborate activities on a rolling basis in the prototype space. Insights about more general trends in making were useful too, but to a lesser extent, and it is likely that these could have been gained just as easily with more traditional means for futuring.

Description

Keywords

makers, futuring, lead users, participatory design, full-scale modelling, extended co-design, edelläkäyttäjät, osallistava suunnittelu

Other note

Citation

Hyysalo, Sampsa & Kohtala, Cindy & Helminen, Pia & Mäkinen, Samuli & Miettinen, Virve & Muurinen, Lotta. 2014. Collaborative futuring with and by makers. CoDesign. Volume 10, Issue 3-4. 209-228. 1571-0882 (printed). DOI: 10.1080/15710882.2014.983937.