Nominee | Young Professionals – RADO Star Prize | 2017
INTERCULTURAL LINK – Über die Rolle der Designer/innen in sozialen Projekten

“Intercultural Link – On the role of the designer in social projects” is a research work presented in the form of a book, with which Beatrice Sierach concluded her MA degree course at the Zurich University of the Arts. As the subtitle of the work makes plain, it focuses on an investigation of the role of the designer in social projects based on the author’s own experience. Following Sierach’s detailed analysis of a social design project which she helped launch at the Oaxaca Design Centre in Mexico, and which she was able to observe over an extended period of time, she developed in the light of her work a toolkit aimed at helping designers to help themselves. The tool supports designers engaged in social field projects in the problem definition process and in the development and implementation of long-term solution strategies.
Comments of the nominators
Based on her own field research, Ms Sierach has created a kind of toolkit for field work in connection with social design, presenting dos and don’ts and auxiliary resources in a comprehensible and user-friendly fashion. The project expands the Design Thinking approach, in that it is not restricted to the product and the business model, but includes a consideration of the life situation of the aspiring creative entrepreneur – both on the level of analysis and in its definition of a solution – in order to arrive at a solution capable of being implemented.
Comments of the jury

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