Impact Lab 2 - People
Throughout a partnership with Orange Sky Laundry, myself and a team of QUT Design students transformed a community building service into an environment that the homeless can call 'home'. The Design Intensive ran over a course of two and a half days, proposing a solution to the design brief presented to us by Orange Sky. Based on extensive research of the company, the target audience and the possibilities available for addressing a world-wide Wicked Problem, the team narrowed down the problem: to break down the stereotyped face of homelessness and reintroduce homeless families to the community as vulnerable personalities with stories to tell.
Overall, we aimed to address the stigma towards homelessness and our solution featured a family friendly approach for a happier, more inclusive lifestyle.
The solution re-enforced Orange Sky's mission to connect the community. However, to enhance its value among its targeted audience, our team considered how the iconic orange chairs generated a sense of involvement among those who participated in conversation. However, our team saw more to Orange Sky than a circle for talking. We targeted the issue by bringing together those who were willing to express themselves. Conversation became an emotive expression of story telling and a simple concept of washing clothes in a laundromat was turned into a 'home' that the homeless can always come back to. It becomes a place 'where stories sing experience'. To realise this idea, the solution involved utilising the materials around them and making a canvas out of the walls and washing machines. All that is required is a variety of washable pencils, paint, or ink. It starts with one person. The first expression of creativity is painted onto a wall and the community add onto it. The purpose of this service is not only to make the conversation and story-telling process a fill-in activity while the washing is finished, but to refine their fine motor skills, develop habits of good mental well-being and to enhance conversation with an interactive and relaxing activity.
The impact of this service comes down to how the community connect. The problem is being addressed and those who are homeless are learning to be vulnerable in front of the wider community who might formerly know them as being 'different'. The stereotypes of homelessness are motivation-deteriorating for the vulnerable. The impact of this solution proves that these people are gaining the benefits of improved creativity and being involved in a expectation-free environment, while showing the public that not every homeless family is in that state because they chose a 'rougher' side to life. To them, telling a story is a way to make connections, and to the public, getting to know who is disadvantaged changes what stereotypes we may hold against them.
Credits: Isabella Coplick, Emily Collyer, Bailey Tisdell, Alyssa Torres, Shanae Villiers
(All team members contributed to the research, problem definition, solution, and impact of this design outcome).
