Box Design Challenge
A Future Multi-generation Co-living Community
Teamwork | Research Based Design
My Role: Team Leader, Researcher, Interviewer, Designer, 3D Modeller
The project is a School-Enterprise Cooperative Project led by U-Corp Lab at Duke Kunshan University and One Place Box, a corporation working on building a multi-generational co-living community. Our work aims to envision a blueprint for a future society where people from different generations can live together in a community with a better resource-sharing system.
The project divides its members into three groups focusing on designing for satisfying the needs of the young, elderly, and families respectively. The group I am in is the Young group, where we are required to identify the challenges and needs faced by young people in co-living with other generations and give out a solution. By collaborating with the other two groups, we are pursuing to achieve a rational allocation of resources and sharing of spaces in a co-developing community.
Methodology
EMPATHY
Empathize with the young to learn about their needs and expectations.
DEFINE
Identify the most vital problem among their needs.
IDEATE
Ideate potential solutions to address that problem.
PROTOTYPE & TEST
Develop the prototype of a co-living community with the focus on the young, test and refine it.
Empathy
Desk Research
We reviewed twelve literature about multi-generational co-living to identify the young generation’s needs in this context and found that ‘Social’ and ‘Communication’ were the most frequently mentioned needs.
Interview
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Sometimes, I would say, it is good to have someone to talk to when you go home.
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Find the experience acceptable for friends living together can help each other and give comfort or support when needed. The overall life quality actually increase.
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The elderly and family takes more proportion in the population structure of most residence community, there’s less room for young people to get to know each other.
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User Persona
User Journey Map
Define & Ideate
Problem
How might we design and develop an enjoyable and cohesive community that allows her to engage in a frequent social circle while maintaining certain amount of privacy?
Ideas
Our new model should allow the young to...
Enjoy some private space
Communicate with her peers at any time
Change her living style whenever she wants to
Enjoy a sense of belonging
Enjoy high-level entertainment facilities and self-study space
Have opportunities of inter-generational interaction
Prototype
YOYL (You Owns Your Life)-Crossing
A multi-functional community for multi-generational co-living.
Floor 1
Entertainment | Free Activities
Residence | Casual Chat and Rest
Floor 2
Work | Self-study and Learning
Floor 3
Outcomes
12
Literature Reviews
5
Interviews
4
Weekly Progress Reports and Presentations
1
Final Design Book
1
Exhibition Poster
1
Conference and Exhibition
Click to see our presentation decumentation.
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