This thesis focuses on the suburban area of Kannelmäki in Helsinki, and explores how to involve residents in a design process aimed at ameliorating the liveability of the area through local collaboration. Sustainable development is here considered as sustainable wellbeing, where an active form of wellbeing is proposed and people are encouraged to actively contribute to the shaping of their living environment. Learning how to involve people in local social design projects is one of the areas of sustainable design that needs to be developed in order to address real societal issues through design.This thesis project is linked to the academic workshop Repicturing Suburban Neighbourhood, organized by the Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and held in Kannelmäki in May 2012. In this thesis a series of initiatives, referred to as explorations, are described. The explorations were carried out before, during and after the academic workshop. The explorations aimed at getting to know the area through the residents’ perceptions, while the ways in which a designer can best approach and involve people in a local design process throughout its phases were explored. Furthermore, the role of design as a way to bring people from an area together in order to catalyse local collaboration was considered. The research method used in the explorations is explorative, practice-based design research. Based on the insights gained through the explorations, guidelines for how to carry out a design process in a local social context are provided. Participatory design approaches are considered a promising direction for a designer who aims to design in a sustainable way. The guidelines represent design knowledge that other designers can benefit from and build upon. The design process described, and further design processes where the traditional notion of design is challenged, contribute to changing the direction of the design practice.
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