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    Welcome to Design Practice in Social Context.

    The course runs in the fourth period and begins with a field trip to Sweden on the 1st of March. We will take the ferry to Stockholm and continue onwards by bus to Kristineberg Marine Research Station near Gothenburg. We will return to Helsinki on the 7th of March and continue our project at Aalto University until the final presentation on the 4th of April. 

    In Kristineberg we meet a group of architecture students from KTH Stockholm who have already researched the background and site of the marine biological research station and will brief us once we are there. We will then relate to what we find through design and chose our own angle or write our own brief in response to what we find at the station. Below is a list of possible briefs identified during last year’s visit, that can offer a starting point for our enquiry. Everything we do should relate and respond to aspects of the socio-ecological marine communities and systems we find in Kristineberg.

    1.     Sam Dupont / Ocean Acidification: How to make the research relevant? Research the strategies Marine Biologist Sam Dupont devised over time to make his research relevant to a non-scientific audience. Analyse the methods he used in terms of design approach. Now make a video or animation of the interventions, structures and platforms he developed that can be used by others to ‘translate’ science into society and devise other design interventions that help translate too. 

    2.     Plastic rubbish on the beaches: The rubbish we can see is just the tip of the iceberg. Looking at interventions such as Precious Plastic, can you propose a local intervention that both uses the plastic that is washed up and raises the issue at a community level in a haptic, engaging way?
     
    3.     The Seabarn residency: Last year’s students suggested to transform the seabarn into a residency for artisans, prototyping workshop, engagement center in which people can come together around the issues of the sea. Building on last year’s proposal can you develop the ideas further including where the funding might come from, who would benefit and how, who would be involved and how the residency would look and feel like? Can you make a compelling proposal for a residency programme?
     
    4.     SEAFARM: For the past 6 years the seafarm has grown seaweed on Sweden’s coastline. The impact of the farm suggests that this could be a good way to sequester carbon, to grow a food source without increased land-use, to give shelter to the fish. Research the positives and negatives of seaweed farming in general and the Sea Farm in particular. Interview people involved about the impact and what can be learned internationally from the Seafarm’s example. Should we farm more seaweed? If so, where and how? Should there be policy guidelines into where to farm for the biggest ecological impact? Who should profit from the farming, who should be consulted?
     
    5.     Examine the research around the seafarm and develop scenarios with which seaweed farming could help us mitigate some of the issues we face in the ocean through climate change. Link your proposals to at least one Sustainable Development Goal: https://www.sdgfund.org/goal-13-climate-action


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