Co-design
Engagement Overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work, published by the RIBA in January 2024, states:
Co-design (collective design) is making together; between the project team and participants to develop and refine the design, actively using creative, participatory methods.
Typically, during project work stages 2 to 4, the project team and participants work closely with participants to gather their input, insights, and feedback on the design proposals. Then, based on this feedback, it refines the design to create a tailored design that meets project needs, is functional, economically, and technically feasible, and reflects the community’s needs and aspirations. Links to levels of engagement: co-design can enable agency participants and treat people equally, leading to a more collaborative process. Co-design aims to promote inclusivity, diversity, and equity in the design process and to create more user-centred, sustainable, and socially responsible proposals.
“Co-design is not the same as public participation. One of the key differences between public participation and co-design is that the later implies collective design, as the term itself suggests – the prefix co- means together, which leaves co-design as designing together.” Ethics of Co-design
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