Abstract
In recent years, co-creation has become common in design and healthcare contexts. This paper examines a co-creation process aimed at creating a physical link between a museum park and a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. Whereas the experiences of end-users are key in co-creation processes, only few studies analyse how research and design actors experience partaking in such process. Therefore, we aim to unravel how a co-creation process is perceived by the various actors involved to ultimately foster improved understanding and collaboration and formulate recommendations for future projects. Through a focused collective autoethnographic approach, we explore the experiences of all actors. This results in insights into how commitment, engagement, and added value relate and differ in actors’ perception. We methodologically discuss and critically reflect on these insights in the context design and social research to conclude with what this research brings to future co-creation processes.
Keywords
actors’ experiences; co-creation; museum park; urban design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2069
Citation
Annemans, M., Vescan, I., Vandyck, F., D'hollander, G., Van Acker, M., and Glazemakers, I. (2026) Co-creating connections: How design, healthcare, and museum actors experience a co-creation process, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2069
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Co-creating connections: How design, healthcare, and museum actors experience a co-creation process
In recent years, co-creation has become common in design and healthcare contexts. This paper examines a co-creation process aimed at creating a physical link between a museum park and a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. Whereas the experiences of end-users are key in co-creation processes, only few studies analyse how research and design actors experience partaking in such process. Therefore, we aim to unravel how a co-creation process is perceived by the various actors involved to ultimately foster improved understanding and collaboration and formulate recommendations for future projects. Through a focused collective autoethnographic approach, we explore the experiences of all actors. This results in insights into how commitment, engagement, and added value relate and differ in actors’ perception. We methodologically discuss and critically reflect on these insights in the context design and social research to conclude with what this research brings to future co-creation processes.