Contradictions are social relationships that have a long history and cannot be solved by any design effort. What design can do is to deal with these contradictions in an expansive way, projecting them into the future. Then, it is possible to get ready to deal with contradictions once they come.

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Expansive design: design with contradictions
Frederick van Amstel, PhD Researcher
Construction Management & Engineering Dept.

2. Healthcare design is based on representations of activity...
2Plans for a new Medical Imaging Center.

3. …that may not match the future activity!
3Plans for a new Medical Imaging Center.

4. Expansive design anticipates the future of activity.
4Plans for a new Medical Imaging Center.

5. People who actually do the activity participate in design…
5Workshop about a new Medical Imaging Center.

6. …expanding their possibilities for activity.
6Second workshop for a new Medical Imaging Center.

7. Technical problems
 How to mediate participation in design?
 How to design tools to support mediation?
 How to represent activity in space models?
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8. Philosophical problem
-Why… doing… that?
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• A philosophical problem does not have a technical solution,
but can inspire technical solutions
• Henri Lefebvre problematized space and activity

9. Problems stem from contradictions
9
Images are
misleading.
Art is
useless.
Rene Magritte

10. Contradictions are concrete, not abstract (out of context)
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11. Principal contradiction
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“Where then is the principal contradiction to be found [in capitalism]?
Between the capacity to conceive and treat space on a global (or
worldwide) scale on the one hand, and its fragmentation by a multiplicity of
procedures or processes, all fragmentary themselves, on the other.”
(Lefebvre, 1991:355)

12. Homogeneization and fragmentation of the body
12
Marilene
Oliver
Leonardo da Vinci
500 years

13. Homogeneization and fragmentation of care
13Layouts collected from the Medical Imaging Center project.
The forces
pushing change
are not visible.

14. Designing with my “contradictory” tool
14Student experiment
Activity is visible
while designing.

15. Mapping the design space
15
All practitioner’s designs All student’s designs
≈

16. Findings
 The design space reproduces the contradictions in activity
 Contradictions are simultaneously cause and effect of design
 If contradictions won’t go away, what can we do?
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17. -Enjoy life.
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18. A game fueled by contradictions
18The Expansive Hospital Game

19. What students learn from playing the game
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Design problems
are not solved in
the mind.
Design problems
are solved in
social activity.

20. What students learn from playing the game
 Socialize the design space (instead of keeping it mental)
 Deal with confrontation
 Create hybrid solutions (different interests, views, techniques)
 Implement hybrid solutions
 Respect individuality
 Keep the collaborative mindset
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My Research Interests
 Participatory Design
 Activity Theory
 Cultural Studies
 Frederick van Amstel f.vanamstel@utwente.nl
 Twitter @fredvanamstel
 http://fredvanamstel.com