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The Leather Product Design Canvas makes use of a conceptual and graphical structure comprising content boxes and specific impulse questions to raise awareness and guide design processes. It aims at supporting the product development and design process of leather products to create more sustainable products. This shall be achieved by providing a quick and multi-perspective overview of relevant topics and considerations. One reason for this approach is that in many cases the designers of leather products such as shoes or bags do not necessarily need to be leather experts. Even interdisciplinary design teams might not include experts that understand both issues of sustainable development and material properties of this versatile material.
Moreover, the complexity of the material leather and its various types of application would usually require a number of different experts to cover the most relevant topics related to sustainable development in order to identify possible rebound effects and systemic interdependencies of certain design decisions. The herewith presented canvas does by no means compensate for these expertise but aims at empowering design teams to take first steps towards more sustainable leather products based on a broadened scope while identifying knowledge gaps or the need for specific experts to be consulted or included in the design team.
With roughly half of the global population living in cities, urban environments become central to public health often perceived as health risk factors. Indeed, mental disorders show higher incidences in urban contexts compared to rural areas. However, shared urban environments also provide a rich potential to act as a resource for mental health and as a platform to increase mental health literacy. Based on the concepts of salutogenesis and restorative environments, we propose a framework for urban design interventions. It outlines (a) an output level, i.e., preventive and discursive potentials of such interventions to act as biopsychosocial resources, and (b) a process level, i.e., mechanisms of inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration of researchers and citizens in the design process. This approach aims at combining evidence-based, salutogenic, psychosocially-supportive design with a focus on mental health. Implementing low-threshold, resource-efficient options in the existing urban context brings this topic to the public space. Implications for the implementation of such interventions for citizens, researchers, and municipality stakeholders are discussed. This illustrates new directions of research for urban person-environment interactions, public health, and beyond.
Die cesar-Methodik
(2019)
Die hier vorgestellte cesar-Methodik beschreibt ein transdisziplinäres Verfahren zur Erforschung und Entwicklung innovativer Lösungen für unterschiedliche Einsatzgebiete.
Verwendungsbereiche dieser Methodik sind neben klassischen Gestaltungsdisziplinen wie dem Design und der Architektur auch die Entwicklungsbereiche der Ingenieurswissenschaften sowie die Unternehmensberatung. Primäres Ziel der cesar-Methodik ist es, aufbauend auf einem präzisen und umfassenden Verständnis des zu thematisierenden Kontextes, einen Bedarf zu identifizieren und diesen mittels innovativer Lösungen moderiert und strukturiert zu decken. Dabei wird in besonderem Maße eine Einbeziehung aller relevanten Akteure bzw. Abteilungen eines Kontextes angestrebt.
Der Name „cesar“ leitet sich dabei von den fünf zentralen Modulen und Perspektiven dieses Prozesses ab, nämlich corporate, experience, system, action und realisation. Der Gesamtprozess lässt sich in zwei Hauptphasen unterteilen. In der ersten Phase, den Modulen ces, findet vor allem eine analytische Betrachtung des Entwurfskontextes in drei unterschiedlichen Dimensionen statt. So bezieht sich das Modell im Rahmen der ersten Dimension auf die wirtschaftlich-unternehmerische
Perspektive (c = corporate) und betrachtet hierbei beispielsweise Wettbewerbsfaktoren und strategische Positionen. In der subjektbezogenen experience-Dimension (e) konzentriert sich das Modell auf die NutzerInnen bzw. AnwenderInnen und integriert hier neben anderen auch Erkenntnisse der Psychologie, Ergonomie und
User-Experience. Die dritte Dimension stellt die systemische Perspektive (s = system) dar und umfasst unter anderem alle funktionalen bzw. technischen Aspekte des Projektes. Hierbei spielen auch neue Produktionsverfahren und Materialeigenschaften eine Rolle. Zwischenergebnis dieses Forschungsprozesses bildet die Zusammenfassung
der relevanten Bedingungen für den darauffolgenden Entwicklungs-prozess.
Dieser wird in Form sogenannter „Focus Points“ fixiert und bildet die Grundlage für die zweite Hauptphase des Prozesses.
In dieser werden im Rahmen der Module action (a) und realisation (r) mittels klassischer Kreativwerkzeuge wie dem Design-Thinking-Ansatz Lösungen konzipiert und anhand der Focus Points selektiert und zum Schluss definiert. Hierbei stellt die Realisationsphase die tatsächliche Umsetzung der in der Action-Phase generierten
Entwürfe dar. So werden etwa Webseiten-Entwürfe praktisch finalisiert und umgesetzt oder Konsumgüter zur Produktionsreife geführt. Die cesar-Methodik lässt sich flexibel an die Entwurfsbedingungen anpassen und ist abhängig von Budget, Zeitplan und methodischer Nützlichkeit über drei Intensitätsebenen skalierbar.
The leather industry is a complex system with multiple actors that faces a fundamental transition toward more sustainable chemistry. To support this process, this article analyzes challenges of the industry and consumers’ roles as a nexus of transition-relevant developments. We present findings of an empirical study (N = 439) among consumers on their perception of leather, related knowledge, and purchasing behavior. We found that participants perceived leather as natural, robust, and of high quality. Knowledge about the manufacturing of leather products was overall limited but varied. Applying a psychological behavior theory, we found that being aware of environmental and health consequences from conventional manufacturing of leather products was positively associated with a personal norm to purchase leather products that are less harmful to environment and health. The perceived ease of buying such products was positively associated with their purchase. Our findings shed light on consumers’ roles in the current leather system and their support of niche innovations toward more sustainable chemistry. Against this backdrop, we discuss implications for product design, consumer information, and needs for traceability along supply chains.
A growing body of literature mainly in the context of consumer research indicates that the formal-aesthetic and conceptual design of objects can influence users' thoughts, emotions and even behavioural patterns. While there is strong evidence regarding these effects on actual purchasing decisions, evidence on the effect of aesthetic design features (e.g., haptics, colour) on health-related mental concepts and intentions for health behaviour change is scarce. Based on insights from material and conceptual priming, this article illustrates the research-driven and evidence-based design process of two design primes and comprises pre-tests and an experiment in two settings on the effect of design on health behaviour focusing i.a. on intention for health behaviour change. In an evidence-based and research-driven process, two lecterns were designed to work as primes, i.e., to have a positive vs. negative influence on several mental constructs (sense of control, sense of coherence, resiliency, self-efficacy) and health-related intention. The lecterns differed mainly in terms of aesthetic appearance (e.g., material, colour, proportion, steadiness). They were tested in (a.) a university setting with students (n = 83) and (b.) a clinical setting with orthopaedic rehabilitation patients (n = 38). Participants were asked to perform an unrelated task (evaluation of an unrelated product) while standing at and using the lecterns. Overall, t-tests and Mann-Whitney-U tests show no significant differences but differing tendencies in a mentioning task. When asked to name health-promoting activities, in the clinical setting, participants using the "positive" prime (i.e., the steady lectern, n = 13) mentioned more sport-related aspects on average and a higher portion of sport-related aspects of their answers than participants using the "negative" prime (n = 11). In the university setting (positive: n = 36; negative n = 38), no such differences emerged. This finding gives reason to believe that the prime might be specifically effective in the clinical setting as it relates to physical activity being the most relevant topic of the patients' pathology.
The design of age-friendly homes benefits vulnerable groups, such as frail people and older adults. Advances in smart home technologies, including robots, have important synergies with homes designed for health needs. Yet, focus on environmental and sustainable housing design and improvements misses important opportunities for collective impact. Stronger involvement of disciplines, such as those from the built environment for technological integration within homes and effects on space and the community, is needed. There is a need for a unified framework integrating the needs and factors of the resident, smart home technologies and robots, and the built environment, and that includes the concept of a “home”. With the remodeling of housing towards sustainable and environmental targets, as well as advances in smart home technologies such as robots, the timeliness of shared input for the benefit of residents now and in the future is of the essence. This would help target future research into effective and optimized cohabitation with technology within homes for the purpose of improving the wellbeing of residents.
Campus Praxis
(2024)
Die Uniklinik RWTH Aachen plant seit Ende 2022 die „Campuspraxis“, eine allgemeinmedizinische Praxis auf ihrem Gelände, um eine hochwertige medizinische Versorgung für Mitarbeitende, Studierende und Anwohnende sicherzustellen. Die Integration der Praxis in den bestehenden Krankenhausbau stellt aufgrund architektonischer Besonderheiten und strenger Auflagen eine Herausforderung dar.
Das Projekt folgt einem evidenzbasierten Ansatz (vgl. Rehn, 2019), bei dem empirische Methoden und wissenschaftliche Evidenzen genutzt wurden, um die Bedürfnisse der Nutzenden zu erfassen und ein gesundheitsförderndes Design zu entwickeln. Ein experimenteller und iterativer Ansatz ermöglicht die kontinuierliche Anpassung der Konzepte im realen Setting.
Trace-It
(2025)