Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

Urban Placemaking for Safe School Zones

Research phases

Project documents

Partners

Project overview

Year of project

2022 - ongoing

Members

Project manager

The work-in-progress research aims to explore how social design might facilitate children's physical and mental safety regarding the inclusivity of public places and mobility formats through placemaking. It has been an ongoing collaboration with the lead of MOME Social Design Hub, together with the Municipality of the 7th district of Budapest, the Centre for Budapest Transport (BKK), and the ELTE PPK Institute of People–Environment Transaction, aiming to tackle the needs of children (age group 10-13) in lights of public transportation, micro and active mobility intensively focusing on the usage and opportunities of public places around their school.

The urban placemaking research was initiated in 2022 by our university’s Social Design Hub. At the start of the project, the main research question was how social design might facilitate children’s physical and mental visibility and safety regarding the inclusivity of public places and mobility formats using placemaking to mitigate traffic through innovative research and co-creation-based design development process. During the methodology development and initial research phase, the project applied various design research tools, such as literature and good practice review, observation and dense description, questionnaires, expert and stakeholder interviews and photo safaris, focusing on four preselected schools located in the centre of Budapest. To unfold the needs of the target group, several workshops were facilitated in the schools using the methodological tools of social design. Based on the collected data, a highly adaptable pilot prototype was created in front of the school located in Budapest downtown. The observation of the prototype includes methods such as narrative impact assessment among the target group and quantitative tools like speed measurement using a speedometer.

Concluding the findings such as community child protection, public place awareness, liminal spaces in this case-study opens the argument of transferability and paradigm changes in the context of Budapest and has potential relevance in other big cities of the CEE region as well. After collecting and analysing the results of the first project, the collaboration started a second chapter in autumn 2023 focusing on a new location. The methodology follows the previous one including changes based on the feedback and takeaways, involving a new school to test the previous prototype on a bigger scale with more actors (parents, teachers, drivers, locals) to develop a more adaptive research tool in the form of the design intervention. The second part of the research is leading to finalising ready-made products with scalable and transferable potential and providing a set of options (installative and regulative) to Municipalities for alternative ways of traffic calming through placemaking in school areas.

Research phases

Methodology development

Jan 2022 – Jun 2022

Developing a process-based co-creational data collection and design method and involving MOME students in an R&D course.

Initial research

Jan 2022 - May 2022

During the development of the methodology and the initial research phase, the project used various design research tools, such as literature and good practice review, observation and dense description, questionnaires, interviews with experts and other stakeholders, and photo safaris, focusing on four pre-selected schools in the 8th district.

Data collection and ideation workshops

May 2022 – Jun 2022

Facilitating workshops to unfold the needs of the target group, using the methodological tools of social design.

Prototype 1.0

Jun 2022 – Mar 2023

Based on the collected data, a prototype was created focusing on tackling the specific challenges raised by the target group. The pilot prototype is a highly adaptable, modular installation in front of the K30 school located in Budapest downtown. The installation itself works as a research tool, so assessing the usability and the impact of the tangible prototype is the last methodological part of the research.

Impact assessment

Mar 2023 – ongoing

Assessing the usability and impact of the tangible prototype is the last methodological part of the research. Observational and testing workshops organized with the participation of the previously involved children.

Expanding framework

Jun 2023 – Nov 2023

As part of our cooperation with BKK we are working on a School Zone project to develop visual identification of school neighborhoods using a new design sign system.

Initial research 2.0

Nov 2023 – Jan 2024

Here, various design research tools were used, such as literature and good practice review, observation and dense description, questionnaires, interviews with experts and other stakeholders, focusing on the school front and neighbourhood of the selected school in the 7th district. Additional data gathering was conducted in the form of speed measurements with the contribution of BKK (Centre for Budapest Transport) and Budapest Közút.

Problem mapping

Jan 2024

The problem mapping included five workshops focusing on different aspects of the research. Around 20 students were involved in cognitive mapping, persona building (of teachers, parents, drivers, Neighbours), common photo collage creating and outdoor real-size modelling.

Ideation workshops

Feb 2024 – Mar 2024

The participatory design workshops were developed based on the results of the problem mapping workshops. The students first defined the main design principles, followed by a group brainstorming session focusing on different functions and as a closure, students co-created physical models from their ideas. During this phase, an external designer was involved to support the process.

Plan validation

Mar 2024 – Apr 2024

After creating the first layouts, feedback from the school’s community was collected in different forms, such as a validation workshop for the already actively involved 20 students, a group consultation with the teachers, and through a feedback-gathering poster, which was placed in the school for a week to sustain the dialogue with the wider community of the school.