The Netherlands faces major societal challenges, including the energy transition, the housing challenge, the future of healthcare, digitalisation and broad prosperity. Design power is playing an increasingly important role in addressing these challenges. Design methods help us approach complex issues holistically, bring together different perspectives and develop innovative solutions that respond to real-world contexts and people’s needs.
A wealth of knowledge and experience is already available on how design power can be applied. However, this knowledge is spread across different organisations, sectors, programmes and networks. As a result, it is not always easy to find or access for policymakers, public organisations, researchers, designers and other professionals working on societal transitions.
We are looking not only at what knowledge is needed, but also at how to build a future-proof knowledge infrastructure. We are mapping existing initiatives, exploring the needs of different users and examining the roles that organisations currently play or could take on. The findings of this exploration will form the basis for recommendations on a programmatic approach to sustainably strengthen knowledge about design power and make it more accessible.
Think with us
A strong knowledge infrastructure can only succeed if it reflects real-world practice. As part of this exploration, we are therefore speaking with organisations and professionals working with or researching design power, societal transitions and knowledge development.
Do you have experiences, ideas or examples that could contribute to this exploration? We warmly invite you to get in touch with us at nina.stegeman@dutchdesignfoundation.com.