This is a CTP of initiative: DESIS - DESIS Lab Florianópolis (Brazil)
The laboratory operates in Santa Catarina, at the Federal University of Florianópolis, in the Southern Region of Brazil and is connected to the design undergraduation.
The responsible professor at the Lab already had a laboratory at the UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) but in 2007 he decided to change the lab’s approach and register it in the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) under the name of Systemic Approach Lab, which changed deeply the logic andknewledge production of the lab.
In the period before 2007 there were not many projects developed with community groups and the lab´s team was focused on design management rather than systemic approach. The systemic approach regards a much larger subject, which allowed the lab to expand its performance.
A factor that encouraged the laboratory’s growth was the founding of a master's program in 2007. Prior to this, the research was very technical and teachers had to develop many things alone because they only had operational support from undergraduate students. After the opening of the master’s program, the master’s students’ projects became part of the laboratory and involved more assertive research. In that way, the volume of laboratory projects was increased and the project´s quality was superior.
The leader professors already had a laboratory at the UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) but it was related to design management as a very broad approach and without specific concerns about any particular theme.
During 2007 the lab was registered as a CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) group named Systemic Approach.
A factor that encouraged the laboratory’s growth was the founding of a master's program in 2007. As the Master’s Program in Design was created at the UFSC the professors needed to have a specific research topic, therefore the lab became related to the master´s program under the systemic approach subject.
Thus, the co-production related to the official foundation of the group was of responsibility of the two professors involved in the former Design Management Lab that restructured it in order to found the Systemic Approach lab and the specific research topic whithin the master´s program.
2007 - Master's program was created -The leader professor needed to have a specific research topic, and have chosen to pursue the Systemic Approach.
2007-2009 - NAS DESIGN participated in the project LOLA - During the period of 2007 until 2009, the Systemic Approch Lab (NAS Design) participated in the project LOLA (Looking for Likely Alternatives). LOLA is a didactic tool used to approach sustainability by investigating social innovation. It aimed to foster interest and involvement in education for sustainability and responsible living in the national school curriculum. It was a very important experience for consolidating the lab and its relevance whitin the university.
2008 - The LAB joined DESIS Brazil - The lab´s leader professor joined the Brazilian research group named DESIS (Design for social innovation and sustainability) which was founded that year and based in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. This Brazilian research group is part of an international network (DESIS Network) which promotes studies and practices in social innovation and sustainability. This proximity with the national and international network brought a larger experience to lab´s participants and at the same time reflected as a recognition of the lab´s projects.
2010-2012- Partnership with Cooperative of Women Producers of Taboa - The lab got into a partnership with an external actor, the Cooperative of Woman Producers of Taboa. This experience generated some very good insights to the lab´s practice. For instance, from this partnership they perceived the importance of using the systems approach to design projects in order to deal with all the variables and complex projects in large communities.
2014 - Officialization of DESIS Network´s affiliation. The lab became an offical partner of the DESIS international network with the establishment of the DESIS Association.
When first the lab was founded, other design course teachers did not understand the systemic approach applied to design. There was a lot of criticism from university researchers who were working with more classical lines of research and traditional methods of design.
During this period the systemic approach was a topic that was discussed in the areas of administration and business and there was therefore an oddity regarding the link between this kind of knowledge and the design area. They did not understand that systemic approach could contemplate design issues or how design could take advantage of the systems approach to meet the challenges of the profession:
"It was as if we were running an administration laboratory within the area of design, that's what others professors thought because they had not been able to relate to the knowledge yet. And it really was very young area of experty at the time, this relationship between design and the systemic approach. Only a few places abroad were beginning to discuss complexity and design".
The interviewee says that when he was doing his master's qualification in 2008, he received very strong criticism because he was using a systemic approach in his work and the UFSC teachers were still facing this issue with unfamiliarity.
Today the laboratory is recognized and accepted within the university. This is mainly due to the circulation of this kind of knowledge both internationally and nationally. In this scenario the NAS DESIGN (Systemic Approch Lab) was one of the most important centers to disseminate system thinking linked to design practice in Brazil.
Faced with massive publications produced by the laboratory and the major international discussion that was taking place around the subject, the UFSC teachers understood that the systemic approach was a relevant subject to design and the laboratory is an excellent reference within the UFSC university. Even though there is a large acceptance now, the interviwee was surprised by the resistence they faced back in 2007:
"I believed that they would have some questions about the systemic approach linked to design, because it was something new at the time, but I did not expect the strong resistance that came as we founded the Systemic Approach Lab".
The professors felt the need to investigate the theme further and altered the lab so they could work with the systemic approach into their design projects, but for them this was based on research curiosity, there was no certainty:
"The change was more of a vision than a strategy".
The issue was still being discussed internationally, it was not known whether it would be a widely accepted theory and the systemic approach’s links to design were still being tested. They were avant-garde in this process in Brazil and faced the insecurity that all avant-garde face.
There were two possible paths available for the teachers:
(1) carry out numerous projects and expand research in the systemic area and promote design with communities or
(2) fail to engage students and teachers in the process, who had interest oly in a single project, not being able to develop a group or laboratory.
In fact the theme was proved interesting and gained strength in the theoretical and practical set of design. Thus, the lab also gained visibility and sparked the interest of students and researchers. All this, however, was not expected or planned.
The subject of systemic thinking and approach is a complex area. It takes time and dedication to understand it and it is constantly changing:
"Sometimes the theme we work with, such as the systemic approach linked to design, is not a new concept, because everyone abroad is already discussing it. What is different is our applications, the cases here in Brazil are very different in relation to international cases. This is where we gain visibility and prominence".
For the lab it was a way to reposition itself and to develop a new area of research in design considering Brazil´s territory. Since then the lab has become a national and international reference for the systemic approach and design studies.
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