Abstract
Over the past two decades, advanced design cultures have worked to integrate complexity management and long-term vision into design practices and learning models. Learning is no longer seen as a transmissive process, but rather as an intentional, active practice involving reciprocal activities of action and reflection, experimentation and prototyping. What happens, however, when designing for extreme contexts such as deep space? How can this field be used to improve the education of future designers? Building on the Responsible Advanced Design approach, the paper presents the results of the Space Living Lab, a learning environment and an experimental system applied to deep space product-service design and education that uses insights from extreme environments to investigate human transition and changes. This process, developed within a European project, requests new design competencies and foster a process of open knowledge and innovation with spillover effects into design education pathways. The paper analyses three of the experimental activities developed within the Space Digital Living Lab, highlighting how each of them activated the set of competencies that define the model. The initial results of the experimental activities described demonstrate the potential of the Space Digital Living Lab in consolidating a multidisciplinary learning community and promoting, through observation, design and simulation in extreme environments, new critical and responsible design thinking.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.137
Citation
Succini, L., Gianfrate, V.,and Pasini, V.(2025) Living Lab for Human Life in Space. New education experiences., in Clemente, V., Gomes, G., Reis, M., Félix, S., Ala, S., Jones, D. (eds.), Learn X Design 2025, 22-24 September 2025, Aveiro, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.137
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Full Paper
Living Lab for Human Life in Space. New education experiences.
Over the past two decades, advanced design cultures have worked to integrate complexity management and long-term vision into design practices and learning models. Learning is no longer seen as a transmissive process, but rather as an intentional, active practice involving reciprocal activities of action and reflection, experimentation and prototyping. What happens, however, when designing for extreme contexts such as deep space? How can this field be used to improve the education of future designers? Building on the Responsible Advanced Design approach, the paper presents the results of the Space Living Lab, a learning environment and an experimental system applied to deep space product-service design and education that uses insights from extreme environments to investigate human transition and changes. This process, developed within a European project, requests new design competencies and foster a process of open knowledge and innovation with spillover effects into design education pathways. The paper analyses three of the experimental activities developed within the Space Digital Living Lab, highlighting how each of them activated the set of competencies that define the model. The initial results of the experimental activities described demonstrate the potential of the Space Digital Living Lab in consolidating a multidisciplinary learning community and promoting, through observation, design and simulation in extreme environments, new critical and responsible design thinking.