Embassy of Health

Picture of EDUBox in action created by Eva de Wit

University of Twente partnered up with Embassy of Health to connect designers, reasearchers and visitors in order to define futures regarding chronic health. How do we change our attitude about health? It’s time that we look for other routes and perspectives to make society healthier and prevent healthcare from becoming too expensive and unattainable. We know what is coming our way, and we feel the pressure on the labour market, on the waiting lists and on our wallets. However, it’s hard to change the reality. It requires adjusting our way of thinking, acting and working together. 

Monuments for future m/otherhood

It’s the year 2050. Babies are now fully gestated in artificial wombs (AW). On their 18th birthday, people who were born from an AW get a chance to visit a monument that displays a part of the machine in which they were gestated.

The visit to the monument marks an important life event because several people have reported strong connections, memories, or even feelings towards these machines. The monuments make it possible to witness and re-connect to the machine ‘that gave you life’. The aim of this speculation is to spark new ideas about future families beyond a family tree, new kinship, and the feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself.

Do you want to know more about Lisa Mandemaker, her experience as DesignLab's designer-in-residence and her collaboration with UT scientists of the Gravitation Programme Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies (ESDiT)?

EDUBox

EDUBox is a self-contained, off-grid and modular learning environment, part of the Humanitarian Engineering action. It is meant to be a flexible learning environment, with a "hands-on" lab included, able to be shipped and used in almost all the environments. The EDUbox follows the STEM classification as a base for its flexible learning setup. At Dutch Design Week, the space serves as a learning environment where designers, researchers and visitors co-shape the future of Chronic Health. Project members at DDW: Alberto Martinetti and Peter Chemweno. (visual by Joëlle Steendam)

AgriBox | Silas Nethe

Especially in developing countries, local food
production is increasingly challenging due to
climate change and conflicts. AgriBox aims to
improve food security and nutrition in underserved communities. Its design makes it easily to be transported and adapted to different locations supporting and empowering small-scale farmers.

Interactive showcases UT

Designers, researchers and visitors discover how to shape the future of chronic health together, in learning environment EDUBox. Next to this spot, you will find the lightbox 'Connecting worlds for a better future', which serves as a meeting place.

Photo: Joëlle Steendam

EDUBox interior project | Eva de Wit

The project aims to make educational furniture appropriate for both modern and traditional forms of education. This enables better education for underserved communities, undeterred by small spaces.

Design Your Life Toolkit | Jelle van Dijk, Thijs Waardenburg, Niels van Huizen

In the Design your Life project we have developed a co-design toolkit to enable young autistic persons on their way to become independent adults, to design their own supportive technologies and living environment.

Connecting worlds for a better future | DreamTeam DesignLab

The starting point in Eindhoven for the UT experience will be Ketelhuisplein. To introduce people into our story, we will use an installation that will represent the past, presents, and futures, in a visual manner. Visitors will be able to meet there and use it to start conversations, connecting their backgrounds in design, science, and daily life.

BRISH | Geke Ludden, Hellen van Rees

A wearable breathing trainer designed to support breathing training at home that can be used by children with dysfunctional breathing patterns. It can monitor breathing using two RIP bands and provides haptic and visual feedback. BRISH comes with a mobile application that guides and motivates children to practice their breathing daily.

Follow up Colour as information sensing | Students Minor 'High Tech Human Touch'

As colour is a strong source of information (e.g., grass turning from green to yellow indicates the change of season or draught, red fruit; ripe and ready to eat) it is necessary to investigate how colour transforms into information in-order-that these principles of transformation can be incorporated into designs and technologies.

Magic Monster | Tamara Pinos Cisneros

A smart toy designed to motivate children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) to do hand exercises at home by playing and learning how to do magic tricks. It uses AI to detect hand movements and to self-adapt the play complexity according to the skills of the child to provide an engaging and personalized play experience.

Blind spots in Sports Data Science | Armağan Karahanoğlu

Improving the data accuracy is one of the driving forces of sports technology development. However, what happens when the numbers and the data representation are not aligned with what the person / athlete feels about their body and performance?

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Mini Design Ride

During DDW, 35 Mini Cooper Design Rides drive through Eindhoven. Each car will have an installation on top designed by DDW participants, which will be visible throughout Eindhoven for nine days. In July, after a generative session, DesignLab's DreamTeam pitched their proposal. Using the mycelium as a metaphor for a people’s network, this installation depicts the societal stakeholders and how they should stay connected. In a forest, the mycelium helps the plants in sharing nutrients. In society, we should share knowledge to create futures in which we can flourish together!

Conference

Join us at the Embassy of Health conference during Dutch Design Week! As part of the programme, DesignLab and other organisations will take up on the necessity to work together with different stakeholders (including our planet). We will shift from perspective between the current context and responsible futures, while exploring questions such as "How do we create the conditions for collaboration now?" and "How to embrace changes in roles in the long(er) term?" You are invited to join the discussion on the 28th of October, at Radio Royaal in Eindhoven: