Designing for wellbeing

protection… Maybe the thing that felt a bit scary for us in the beginning was
our strictly regulated work meeting open artistic expression and creative
processes. Standing on that threshold, we were slightly tense and scared
of what would happen.”
– Expert in family and social services, Espoo
“Suddenly we had professors and head nurses coming in from totally different
fields. It didn’t feel too credible or reliable… What bothered me was
not being sure if our supervisors knew we were involved in a thing like
this – and was this legal? We have very strict rules about confidentiality,
and we can’t implement anything ourselves that we haven’t applied for a
permit for and which hasn’t been agreed with our superiors.”
– Head of department in an internal medicine clinic, Helsinki
When the nature of the projects was elaborated over the phone and the
time came to meet the professors, researchers and students taking part
in the projects, the idea of the collaboration became clearer and these
preconceptions were replaced by preliminary trust.
“ I myself am an architect, and I have been thinking about this social side
of design. I hadn’t actually realised that design could be of this much use
in designing everyday things, not just spaces. Maybe there was a dash of
fate in this. I have now ended up planning things in a similar way; this just
somehow swept me along with it.”
– Architect, social services, Espoo.
“In the beginning of the project we discussed with Maarit Mäkelä [professor
at the department of design] about what would be a good common goal.
What the child protection services and everyone else who works with children
needs are different ways to see the world from the perspective of a
child… Somehow we thought that the collaboration would help us take a
27 · The cities on design