Design Research I Community Engagement I Workshops
CommunityGarden
In my master's thesis, I aimed to test the general interest in establishing a community garden on the campus of Nova School of Business and Economics in Carcavelos and to investigate the willingness of the community to participate actively. Various stakeholders are interested in establishing the community garden, leading to the development of a long-term management model. I used a design thinking approach – which is, by definition, human-centered and collaborative. To foster the participation and engagement of community members, the approach involved qualitative methods used in design research, including expert interviews, observations, participatory research, and fast prototyping workshops
Feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and intimated by the business school mentality at Nova SBE, I always dreamed about a space, where you relax and find creativity again. This amazing project started with the collaboration of The DESIS Lab @Nova SBE, supported by the Municipality of Cascais.
Supported by the budget of the Prototyping Fund, I developed a fast-prototyping workshop series to test the result of the participatory research. The workshops served as a strategic way to measure interest in the activities and actively engaged students, faculty, staff, and the local community and aimed to foster a sense of community spirit while gathering feedback for future events. Participants experienced their potential benefits by actively participating in hands-on activities. The positive workshop experience might encouraged favorable word-of-mouth, spreading the concept of community gardening at Nova SBE and attracting a broader audience. The first workshop, on the theme of art in nature, allowed participants to discover their artistic talent while creating nature-inspired crafts. After gathering feedback, I ran a second workshop on how to homegrown oyster mushrooms.
To ensure that the design solutions were user-centered, I designed several materials to engage community members: posters, flyers, and interactive surveys. This allowed them to share their ideas, expectations, and needs and to vote on activities.
In November 2023, the dedicated team at Cascais Ambiente worked steadily to make the dreams of the community garden a tangible reality. With their support, Nova SBE prioritised inclusivity, ensuring that everyone could easily access and enjoy the shared space.
To follow the latest updates and the progress of the project, please have a look at the Era Chair in Social Innovation website @Nova SBE https://socialinnova-chair.com/community-garden/
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