Designing for wellbeing

application; and,
8. create new places and environments.
A design intervention in the urban landscape is by nature mobile rather
than fixed, stimulating and dynamic rather than static, liberal rather than
conservative and open rather than restricted. Design interventions deal
with both pragmatic and theoretical conditions as they are statements, phenomena
and situations, as well as applied science, people’s and designers’
know-how and experiences in making, acting and reflecting. Interventions
in urban public spaces can occur in different places: in institutions like
libraries, cultural centres and public buildings or in streets, boulevards,
squares, parks and shopping centres.
The objectives of design intervention vary, as well as its form, scale and
scope. There are design interventions that aim to understand the values
of an area, context or neighbourhood through participatory means, to
promote new approaches to the reformation of places and public environments,
or to introduce new products, services, uses and experiences
to the public realm. Design interventions also serve as experiments for
academic research. They help to study new opportunities for local development,
community cohesion, to design in collaboration with various
stakeholders and to envision services and design opportunities for the
city. Design interventions can pop up in the public space without previous
announcement or interventionists can invite people in advance to
participate in the event.
The design interventions illustrated in the previous chapter help to
identify directions and possible modes for small-scale urban revitalisation.
They serve to explore new ways to enliven suburban places and
communities. The significance of design and the design interventions is
not at this stage to influence urban politics or to make stylish designs, but
rather to try out and measure the impact of new uses and activities through
participatory means. Design interventions help to identify how giving
121 · Design interventions for wellbeing in neighbourhoods