Design workshops in the age of climate change: Analysis of a design workshop on drought in Flanders
Abstract
Purpose
As policy makers address the issue of climate adaptation, they are confronted with climate-specific barriers: a long-term horizon and a high degree of uncertainty. These barriers also hamper the development of spatial planning for climate adaptation. So how can spatial planners encompass these barriers and steer the general debate on climate adaptation? The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This research analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of an international design workshop on climate adaptation, and drought issues in particular. Design workshops are originally an educational setting but they are increasingly employed as a tool to explore alternative futures on a complex, real-life design problem. The case study illustrates how climate-specific barriers emerged throughout the design workshop and clarifies how they were encompassed by the participating design students.
Findings
The research clarifies the added value of a design workshop on climate adaptation. The paper highlights specific promising characteristics of the design workshop: the visualization of future adaptation challenges and the current water system, the focus on a regional project instead of sectoral adjustments and the integration of the adaptation challenge with other socio-economic goals. In the case study Flanders, however, the necessary participation of climate experts and policy makers of other domains proved challenging.
Originality/value
The paper argues that a design workshop has the potential to enrich the debate and policy work on climate adaptation. In many countries with low-planning tradition, however, additional tools are needed to help set the “adaptation agenda.”
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. In addition, the authors like to thank Johan Dewalsche and Yehya Serag for their support and Elke Vanempten for her advice during the preparation of the SCRUL design workshop. The authors give special thanks to all SCRUL participants including the design students, the local stakeholders and the master designers.
Citation
De Waegemaeker, J., Kerselaers, E., Van Acker, M. and Rogge, E. (2017), "Design workshops in the age of climate change: Analysis of a design workshop on drought in Flanders", Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 48-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-05-2017-0020
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited