Over a thousand children participate in PolyU’s design research project of a country park
The Public Design Lab of the School of Design at PolyU launched an inclusive design research project named “Playful Public Design by Children” in 2019. An exhibition of “Playful Public Design by Children”, showcasing the creative design and thinking process of the participants with augmented reality and project videos, is now on display in Gallery A, Podium Level, Jockey Club Innovation Tower until 31 December.
Using the real-life setting of Shing Mun Country Park, the project engaged a group of art educators for kids and over a thousand children, aged from 3.5 to 18, with their parents to study the inclusive design of country parks. The participants learnt to take a critical look into the relationship among humans, animals and nature to apply design thinking to public spaces, facilities and structures.
The art educators were from CreativeKids, a local art design education studio for children and youth. The project is a critical breakthrough in research collaboration between a university design research lab and a creative learning studio. It not only enabled the Public Design Lab’s researchers and designers to explore children’s participation in public design, but also facilitated CreativeKids’ design facilitators and researchers to collect data on children’s observations, concerns, ideas and solutions. The project furthermore provided valuable references for researchers and art education practitioners to carry out public design research both with and for young children.
To learn more about the “Playful Public Design by Children” project, please have a look at the following media reports:
