During Dutch Design Week 2018, Creative Industries Fund NL and Waag are organising the Designing a Community of Care: From creative research to practice network meeting, in association with the Aedes-Actiz Knowledge Centre for Housing, Care and Welfare and the Who Cares team. Paul and Claire will give a keynote exploring the role of design and creative practice in understanding and tackling the challenges of an ageing population.

In the Netherlands a care reinvention is happening. An ageing population, decentralisation and technological advances are making new demands on the provision of care in communities. Creative Industries Fund NL and Waag believe in the power of design’s contribution to this process of transition within care in the community.

Designing a Community of Care
The reason for this meeting is the Open Call: Designing a Community of Care, which was issued by the Fund in the spring of 2018. Thirteen projects have been initiated, in which designers are tackling changes to care in the community in conjunction with municipal services, care providers and housing corporations. You can find further information via this link (Dutch only).

Keynote speakers 

Professor Paul Chamberlain – Design Director of Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University

Dr Claire Craig – Health Director of Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University

Good design can mean a lot for society, but how can design practices and processes help to tackle the challenges we are facing in the 21st century? Paul Chamberlain argues that design is as much about the definition of the question as it is about providing an answer, and that interdisciplinary collaboration is the starting point for new creative possibilities. In Claire Craig’s former role as an occupational therapist she gained experience in the advancement of the wellbeing of the elderly, and she believes that design plays a pivotal role in this field.

Designing a Community of Care: From creative research to practice
Monday 22 October 2018, 1PM – 5PM
Innovation Powerhouse (Strijp-T), Zwaanstraat 31a, Eindhoven

Chronic Health exhibition
The Embassy of Health is an initiative of Waag, VanBerlo, Philips, Máxima Medical Centre, U Create and the Dutch Design Foundation. The ‘Chronic Health’ exhibition reveals how these organisations are jointly shaping care and how care products or services are not autonomous, but interact within a complex care environment. The exhibition immerses visitors in an interactive environment and allows them to experience the current and prospective role of design for (health)care: now, as well as in the immediate and more distant future.

Professor Paul Chamberlain is a Professor of Design, Co-Director of C3RI at Sheffield Hallam University, Head of the Art & Design Research Centre and Co-Director of Lab4Living.

Claire Craig is Reader in Design and Creative Practice in Health in the Art & Design Research Centre (ADRC) and Co-Director of the interdisciplinary research group Lab4Living. Claire’s research focuses on the role of creative practices in improving quality of life and well-being for people living with dementia.

Photo above: Sander van Wettum.