5 days of workshops of "Social inclusion in regeneration" has brought us three amazing solutions of services supporting the regeneration of the Palace Complex in Siemianowice Śląskie.
As a team of 18 changemakers we worked in 3 groups and together with Fundacja Stajnia (PL), London College of Communication (GB) and Student & Innovation House (DK) we managed to:
face the needs of the local community by: working with a context, a field trip and interviews with local entrepreneurs,
then we tried to find the best possible answers to meet them by mentoring and feedback sessions, inspirational debate and constant development of our ideas during workshops,
to finally create 3 amazing solutions for social services sprinkled with international and multicultural touch.
To be more specific:
MONDAY
In the beginning, team integration helped us break the ice within a team.
Later on, we learned more about the methodology of Service Design and then went outside to get a better view of the context surrounding the Palace. We worked in the field trying to soak into the spirit of the city, engaging the local community to interact with us.
At the end of the day, the dumplings workshop and beer tasting helped us to relax and get to know each other a bit better.
TUESDAY
The second day began with Introduction to Research during which we had a chance to deepen our knowledge about how to formulate research questions and collect data.
Later on, we had a field tour with Piotr Kochanek, a spokesman from Siemianowice Śląskie, who showed us some of the most culturally significant places of the city such as @Siemianowickie Centrum Kultury and one of the oldest indoor pools in Europe @Zabytkowa Pływalnia Miejska w Siemianowicach.
In the afternoon we had a chance to interview local entrepreneurs and students to be able to get to the heart of local needs.
WEDNESDAY
We continued working with the design challenge. In the afternoon we could participate in "Business with a vision - what is sustainable and how to design it" - the inspirational debate with two great businessmen: Władysław Grochowski, president of the board of Arche Group and Zbigniew Bielak, president of the board of Inspiration Point that owns the Palace Complex in Siemianowice Śląskie.
The debate was about their experiences, hopes and dreams and what made them begin their adventure with the regeneration of postindustrial and historical buildings. Moreover, they shared with us their vision of a sustainable approach in business as well as their way of implementing and providing it within their companies.
At the end of the day, we had a mentoring session with entrepreneurs experienced in service design, business, and marketing. Thanks to that we could stop and rethink our ideas.
In the evening we went to @Multilanguage Evenings - Cross-Cultural Health and Wellness fair placed in Królestwo in Katowice where we had a chance to meet, talk and get some air in a cross-cultural. environment.
THURSDAY
On Thursday we kept on developing our ideas. During that very creative process, we went through multiple turns of actions and intense discussions. It was about prototyping and testing our ideas to find answers to what we want to achieve by implementing our projects and how to effectively engage the local community into the process of regeneration.
FRIDAY
On the last day, we SUMMERISED our work and PRESENTED the results in front of mentors and the rest of the team. After that, we got rich feedback about our presentations that we can use in our future actions.
Here are the results:
SKILL SWAPPING - Swapping knowledge and creating a safe environment for young professionals to network.
FESTIVAL OF 6 ISLANDS OF INSPIRATION - A festival combining mindful activities like yoga, reading corner, food - or craft corner.
THE STORY HUNT - A game that could help the local community to interact and collaborate while keeping the history of the Palace alive.
Now, the Polish team will try to merge the solutions and boil them down into one proposal to be ready for implementation and testing of the service in July.
SATURDAY
WUD SILESIA - On Saturday we attended the 10th edition of the interdisciplinary conference on UX research and human-oriented design. The conference is about expanding designers' awareness of their responsibility and providing them with thinking tools to help them make better design decisions.
So! To sum up the whole week we surely can say it was intense, creative and inspirational time for US.
Next step:
London! And another 5 days of workshops in the field of “Service design in the regeneration process”
See you ALL in February 2020!!
