Do it again - A community centered design activity on upcycling

This paper is about the methodology, tools, process and output of an intensive two-week design workshop held at Tongji University in Shanghai, involving selected postgraduate students and teachers from six English and six Chinese universities in April 2014. The workshop was focused on designing low-carbon solutions by using industrial production leftovers and waste as main materials. The educational process integrated community-centered design by involving the Hongkou District Liangcheng community, an exemplar of Low-Carbon Community based in the center of Shanghai (China). Interdisciplinary and multinational team-based design activities were carried out focusing on recycling and better use of resources. This advanced the industry-university-research cooperation and commercialization of design results through significant and effective interaction among students, teachers, community and companies. The paper will go through the design process and output; highlighting the roles of the stakeholders and how they interacted throughout the workshop; describing the didactic methodology and showing how the co-design activities were carried out.