With the goal of providing post-secondary design students an interdisciplinary and multicultural learning experience, WDO launched a three-week design sprint in collaboration with its Young Designers Circle. Under the banner of the theme Heritage in Motion: Defining the Future by Design, the pitch-style challenge focused on design research and strategy.

Working in teams with the support of faculty mentors and industry subject matter experts, participating students mapped a problem space, identified gaps in the existing solutions landscape and proposed opportunities for innovation. The sprint was run online from 30 September 2024 to 21 October 2024.

Themes

Under the larger theme Heritage in Motion: Defining the Future by Design, this initiative invited students to explore the transformative power of design — leveraging both speculative and pluriversal design approaches to address pressing global issues. To facilitate this, a cluster of seven sub-themes were identified to focus teams throughout the ideation and prototyping phases.

Future Food Systems

Design sustainable and efficient food systems to combat global hunger and promote responsible consumption.

Technological Craftsmanship

Integrate traditional craftsmanship with new technologies to enhance product sustainability and economic viability.

Climate-resilient Ecosystems Design

Design urban spaces that not only support human activities but also integrate and enhance local biodiversity and ecological health.

Health Ecosystems by Design

Innovate health solutions that align with ecological sustainability, enhancing both human health and environmental resilience.

Natural Heritage Conservation

Speculate and create future-oriented conservation strategies that safeguard water, land, and biodiversity.

Designing Peace: Our heritage for the future

Foster design that builds community resilience, supports social equity, and promotes peace across diverse societies.

Process

Students were divided into 4-6 teams, each focusing on a specific sub-theme and working collaboratively using online tools. The first two weeks featured a 3-hour synchronous Zoom session, followed by asynchronous design sprint over Slack and Miro, before teams pitched their ideas to a panel of judges at the end of the third week.

Outcomes

As part of the organization’s ongoing mandate to design a better world, WDO will continue to invite the support of members to further support local design ecosystems through focused discussion and workshops of a similar nature.

To learn more about the outcomes of this initiative download the project report.

Have questions about this design sprint? Interested in hosting something similar in your community? Contact Dorothée Bolade, WDO Community Engagement Officer at dorothee@wdo.org

About

The Young Designers Circle is an initiative that aims to strengthen the role of design leadership today by planting seed that will lead to a large impact tomorrow. The following members’ of WDO’s YDC programme have committed to act as mentors to help teams throughout the sprint. To find out more about the young leaders, please see their bios here.

Young Designers Circle

Albarran_Veronica

Verónica Albarrán Carrillo
Mexico

Arbresha Ibrahimi

Arbresha Ibrahimi
North Macedonia

Kaya_Nesibe

Nesibe Kaya İnce
Türkiye

Carlos Jarquin

Carlos Jarquin
USA

Ovalle_Manuel

Manuel Ovalle
Guatemala

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Eunice Joyison
Philippines

Onbasioglu_Basak

Başak Onbaşıoğlu
Türkiye

Arjit Singh
Canada

Marchant_Jose_2

José Marchant Verdugo
Chile

YDC Facilitator

Jed Looker
Canada

WDO Secretariat

Dorothée Bolade
Canada