Makerspace
The challenge for this project was to design for community in the Makerspace of the LOT project. Vestide (part of Woonbedrijf) will build 735 new student living places on the campus of TU/e (Woonbedrijf, 2022). The makerspace is located on the boulevard between the two towers. It’s meant as a social core of the student village that encourages and invites students to visit each other. The community makes an important contribution to the well-being of the students.
Naomi Afenkhena, Farhan F. Jamaludin, Marc Wijkmans
Through a Frame-creation approach, we came up with the idea to transform the Makerspace into a space for communities to host activities while assuring the circularity of things, objects, and tools. After each activity, the community make way for others again. To support the circularity of the Makerspace, we created a box that can be used to store and recycle objects.
I also did an individual ethnography study on the Crafting Wearable Senses Squadspace. The results were shown in an entangled mapping infographic.
Learning Points
The frame creation approach challenged me and my group to explore, view, and understand the problem from different perspectives. Another thing I learned is that I need to become aware of my own biases and steer clear of them when doing ethnographic research. Moreover, I learned the power of entangled infographics to visualize the relationships and values within a place. The making process of these infographics also creates moments of reflection and can spark new ideas to create design interventions for the space.