DESIGN FOR ALL: AN INTERGENERATIONAL CO-DESIGN COP26 PROJECT

Introduction:In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in intergenerational activities that explore positive outcomes that come from children and older adults working together. Such activities often involve the exchange of knowledge or skillsets where an intergenerational pair can build new concepts, methodologies or ways of thinking. While projects with school aged children are becoming more common, opportunities involving young adults in higher education have been less well explored. With the prospect of the leading international conference on climate change coming to Glasgow in November 2021, here we report on an intergenerational design project based around COP26 involving undergraduate and postgraduate design students and older adult learners.Methodology:The intergenerational programme consisted of an 8-week online co-design project exploring creative talents. Each older adult learner was paired up with a design student to work together on designing and developing a souvenir of Glasgow together. Adult learners were recruited from the Centre for Lifelong Learning community (CLL) at the University of Strathclyde whereas design students were recruited from undergraduate and post-graduate design programmes. Pairing of the design students and adult learners was completed at random. Each co-design partnership was tasked with manufacturing 10 identical souvenirs. The final products developed were planned to be sold in a ‘pop up’ shop in connection with the official COP26 events. Our evaluation was based on online questionnaires both at the beginning and end of the project. Free text responses were explored using Braun and Clarke thematic analysis (2006). A small number of participants were invited to interview at random at the conclusion of the project. Ethical approval was granted by the University of Strathclyde.Results:The final programme delivered important learning and teaching components including: a briefing and information event, the project launch, design studio sessions, work in progress reviews with external design critics, and making and testing design prototypes. A total of 13 adult learners and 22 design students completed the project. In designing and developing Glasgow souvenirs, the co-design pairs were asked to consider a number of important factors including cost of production, materials, size, value and the connection to Glasgow and COP26. The co-design pairs were also asked to consider a range of contemporary issues in product design and development. The pairs also considered Glasgow slogans and landmarks that could be translated into souvenir forms as well as safety and intellectual property (IP) issues. Discussion:Our “Design for All” project demonstrates the utility of intergenerational projects that incorporate older adults in higher education. There are several learning points of note- large scale events such as COP26 can provide a local level platform to: (i) encourage intergenerational and cultural awareness, (ii) allow individuals to explore their connections to their home city, (iii) experiment with commercial concepts and (iv) raise awareness of climate change/sustainability. We now plan to both exhibit and sell the products developed and to develop a more long-term sustainable model for future roll out of this project. This approach aligns with the University of Strathclyde’s Age-Friendly Academy ethos of offering something for everyone regardless of age or stage in life.