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Abstract

Cities worldwide are increasingly adopting green and social infrastructure strategies to promote sustainability, resilience, and well-being. At the same time, demographic ageing poses significant challenges for urban environments in becoming more user-friendly, considering the diverse needs of different age groups. However, limited attention has been devoted to developing methodologies that effectively integrate diverse generations into participatory design. This gap is critical given the growing recognition that age-diverse perspectives are essential for creating truly inclusive urban environments that respond to the needs of all ages. The DESIGN4AGES project aims to develop and test a Structured Intergenerational Co-Design Methodology (SICoD-M) for planning Intergenerational Contact Zones (ICZs) in European cities. The project addresses the current lack of systematic, empirically grounded methods for involving multiple generations in the collaborative design of inclusive and climate-adaptive public spaces. SICoD-M will be applied in both physical and virtual co-design settings to explore its feasibility, effectiveness in fostering intergenerational collaboration, and adaptability across cultural and urban contexts. Grounded in the literature on Intergenerational Contact Zones (ICZ; Kaplan et al., 2020) and intergenerational contact theory (Whear et al., 2023), the project conceptualises structured co-design as a mechanism for fostering empathy, creativity, and cooperation across age groups. The theoretical framework recognises that meaningful intergenerational encounters in urban planning processes can reduce age-based stereotypes, enhance mutual understanding, and generate more innovative solutions. The methodology will be tested across five cities, Aalborg (DK), Antwerp (BE), Lisbon (PT), Twente (NL), and Valladolid (ES), each with distinct climatic, cultural, demographic, and institutional conditions. The research aims to achieve five interrelated specific objectives. The first, SO1 – To establish an evidence base on policy, stakeholder needs and best practices, analyses comparative policy frameworks, stakeholder perspectives, and best practices for intergenerational and climate-adaptive urban public spaces. The second, SO2 – To define climate-adaptive design guidelines for ICZs, co-produces practical adaptation and carbon-transition criteria for participatory co-design. The third, SO3 – To co-create intergenerational design inputs using participatory methods, engages older adults and younger participants in generating design concepts, needs statements, and evaluation criteria. The fourth, SO4 – To develop and embed the SICoD-M into hybrid co-creation environments, integrates these outputs into hybrid settings combining face-to-face and immersive virtual reality. The fifth, SO5 – To test, evaluate and validate the SICoD-M across contexts, pilots the methodology across European sites, assessing feasibility, collaborative processes, psychosocial outcomes, and cross-cultural transferability. By combining policy analysis, experimental co-design workshops, and virtual reality-supported participatory prototyping, DESIGN4AGES will deliver a validated, evidence-based and transferable methodology for intergenerational urban co-design for urban planners, municipalities, and community organisations. By integrating social inclusion and ecological awareness in participatory design, the project contributes to the Circular Urban Economies Transition Pathway of the DUT 2025 partnership, supporting cities in their transition toward climate-neutral and socially cohesive solutions based on a structured public participation approach in co-designing liveable public space. The expected impacts extend beyond methodological innovation to include strengthened intergenerational collaboration, enhanced capacity of local authorities and practitioners to design more inclusive and climate-adaptive urban spaces for all citizens, from younger to older.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Eloy Sara
• Co-promoter: Annemans Margo

Research team(s)

• Architecture + Interior04/01/2027 - 04/01/2030

Funding

• FWO

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), the first entry point for cocoa into Africa in the 19th century, faces an urgent need to safeguard the cultural, ecological, and historical heritage embedded in its cocoa cultivation systems. These systems encompass not only landscapes and material practices but also community knowledge, memories, and identities. Today, this heritage is increasingly at risk due to the impacts of climate change, which threaten both cocoa production and the livelihoods of the communities that sustain it. As one of the world's major cocoa-consuming nations, Belgium holds a historical responsibility to acknowledge and support this heritage. This research project adopts an iterative, people centred methodology in which farmers, families, cooperatives, cocoa experts, local authorities, traders, and entrepreneurs collaboratively shape the inquiry. Through their active participation in augmented heritage mapping, these stakeholders help identify the heritage values associated with cocoa and define locally grounded safeguarding strategies. The central research question asks how cocoa growing communities understand, articulate, and prioritise the heritage values of cocoa, and how such insights can guide appropriate protection measures. The project unfolds in four main stages. The first stage consists of desk-based analysis, including a literature and archival review, identification of case studies, and engagement with relevant stakeholders to orient the fieldwork. The second stage comprises field research in STP, where interviews, observations, and multisensory documentation (video, audio, photography, and 3D scanning) capture lived experiences and the spatial, material, and symbolic dimensions of cocoa heritage. Field visits are planned for Years 1 and 3. The third stage involves qualitative and spatial data analysis: interview materials are examined to identify heritage values and community perspectives, while 3D datasets are processed into accessible digital outputs that contribute to a multimodal understanding of cocoa landscapes and practices. All collected materials - spatial data, interviews, survey responses, demographic information, and literature - feed into a structured database supporting GIS mapping and further research. Finally, the last stage focuses on dissemination, including the preparation of peer reviewed journal articles, conference papers, and the PhD manuscript. By integrating community knowledge, multimodal documentation, and heritage based analysis, the project aims to produce an evidence-driven framework for safeguarding cocoa heritage. Ultimately, it seeks to strengthen local livelihoods in STP while fostering more equitable, heritage conscious collaboration between STP and Belgium.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Eloy Sara

Research team(s)

• Architecture + Interior01/07/2026 - 30/06/2030

Funding

• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

For a long time, researchers have understood that the built environment affects the satisfaction and well-being of occupants. Several authors have argued that buildings trigger a physiological response in their occupants, that the architectural design of an environment impacts the behaviour of its occupants, and that spaces provoke emotions and enhance action. The mismatch between the way the built environment is designed and the users' needs is an issue that leads to dissatisfaction and expensive and time-consuming alterations to the built environment. Despite the knowledge of architecture's impact, few tools in interior architecture address the assessment of visual satisfaction and well-being of space occupants. Although studies have been done to assess specific elements of space and specific emotions and physiological responses, there is a lack of practical methodologies that designers and researchers can use. The principal objective of this study is to craft a methodology for digitally assessing the spatial perception of users regarding their visual satisfaction and well-being in interior architecture, with practical applicability throughout the design process with the ultimate goal of fostering user-centric architectural design. The development of such methodology will be operationalised using an iterative process involving the relevant stakeholders, namely interior architects and end-users of buildings, along several stages of the research. An immersive testbed that incorporates methods to convert designs into experiences and assessment methods will be devised. The testbed and assessment methods will be piloted by applying the validation square with end-users and design experts. Since interior spaces are of extreme relevance for the well-being of their users, the development of the proposed methodology will greatly impact the scientific community and the design sector through its practical applicability and, by fostering user-centric architectural design, will have significant social relevance.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Eloy Sara
• Co-promoter: Verlinden Jouke Casper
• Fellow: Ye Jiaming

Research team(s)

• Architecture + Interior01/06/2024 - 31/05/2028

Funding

• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project