DESIGNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND WELL-BEING: APPROACHES TO STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

This paper will outline novel approaches for designers who wish to actively engage users in the creation of green spaces for health and wellbeing benefit. As such, the research strongly aligns with the conference theme of ‘Fostering Human-Centred Products and Services in Design’ and will present engagement methods that can be adopted and modified by design educators in similar contexts where health and wellbeing outcomes are prioritised. The degradation of the natural world and accompanying resource and climate challenges are acknowledged as existential issues. Positive action is required in design education in order that new tools, methods and approaches are adopted to allow the natural world to be integrated as part of the design process. There are well-established therapeutic and health benefits in us spending time in nature, for example, improved mood and increased physical fitness. Green prescribing is increasingly recognised as an approach that involves healthcare professionals recommending nature-based activities, such as gardening, walking, or participating in conservation projects, as part of a patient's treatment plan. Planning the development of green spaces requires an understanding of synergies and trade-offs between human-nature interactions. To do this, we must understand the plurality of values, identities and capabilities of the beneficiaries that use such spaces. Improving the ways in which visitors engage with the natural outdoors spaces is important for conservation, cultural heritage, public health, and economics. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is tasked with sustaining the population’s health, and given its significant land ownership surrounding hospitals and treatment centres, there is an opportunity to explore how best to utilise these spaces. These can add value to both the healthcare facility and surrounding community through enhanced health and wellbeing and deeper ecological appreciation. Design HOPES (Healthy Organisations in a Place-based Ecosystem, Scotland) is a transdisciplinary research project that exploits the potential of design-led thinking and making to innovate and tackle multifaceted health delivery challenges to meet urgent Net Zero goals, set by NHS Scotland, for a sustainable health and social care system. The research here reports on three innovative approaches to extracting, understanding and characterising user requirements that are grounded in local communities, and can then be incorporated in the configuration of green spaces for wellbeing. These include: * Community information exchange: structuring the dissemination of wellbeing information and co-design sessions in town-hall style events * Games for community engagement: abstracting sustainability and wellbeing concepts, and articulating these through playful interaction * Creative practice for communities: setting and developing co-creative activities to generate shared wellbeing visions and values These will be outlined and discussed based on insights from the presented case studies. The way in which these can be consolidated and integrated within human-centred design process for any environment-specific design context will be outlined. This will provide new insights for stakeholder engagement in the design process, and point to how sustainability and well-being can be prioritised in requirements capture for design educators.