05 October 2011
Homelessness design challenge: Submissions closing
Wanted: ideas to reduce the risk of homelessness, improve the daily life of people struggling without stable housing and build new pathways to social inclusion.
The 2011 challenge is looking for ideas to tackle the problem of homelessness.
© iStockphoto
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RMIT University’s Design Challenge 2011: Homelessness asks researchers, design practitioners, service providers, students and people who have experienced homelessness to form transdisciplinary teams to work together to propose creative design concepts for the issues faced by the homeless community.
Round 1 submissions for the challenge close on Friday, 7 October.
At a recent briefing event, RMIT’s Professor Chris Chamberlain, an expert on homelessness, busted some of the myths and urged teams to think of the diversity of Australia’s 105,000 homeless people.
“Don’t just think in terms of ‘I’m designing for homeless people’, think in terms of this is a very diverse population with different groups and with different needs, and think about ‘who primarily am I targeting?’,” Professor Chamberlain said.
Presented by the RMIT Design Research Institute, the Design Challenge acts as ‘solution finder’ for major issues, working as a catalyst for innovative collaboration and seeding research projects with real, practical potential.
Proposals are judged on design innovation, impact, practicality and application, team transdisciplinarity and potential for design development.
Finalist teams, who will be selected in November, receive support and mentoring to develop their proposals. The overall winner of Design Challenge 2011: Homelessness will be announced in April next year.
An insightful video created by final year RMIT School of Media and Communication students, with the cooperation of the Wintringham welfare organisation, on the theme of homelessness is available to view on YouTube.
The Design Challenge is an initiative of the RMIT Design Research Institute, with partners Deloitte and the Australian Community Workers Association.
Submissions for Design Challenge 2011: Homelessness require an outline of the idea proposal and profiles of the collaborative development team.
For more information and entry forms see the website:
