This is a CTP of initiative: DESIS - DESIS Lab Florianópolis (Brazil)
Being located within the university, the lab seeks integration between teaching, research and outreach activities. The lab promotes this integration as they work with research and outreach activities as a complement to teaching practice in the classroom. The laboratory structure is based on the relationship between teachers and students, who work voluntarily to carry out the group’s projects.
Students who are part of the projects are undergraduate and graduate students and they can spend from one semester to up to four years (for doctoral students) working in the laboratory. Considering that, every six months (school halfyear) there is a large inflow and exit of students working in the lab due to school periods, which are divided into semesters.
The fact that there is constant change in the team is a CTP because it generates a restructure process that occurs seasonally and this impacts the projects directly. Also as the work is done mostly by volunteers, some strategies are required in order to engage the students for longer periods, encouraging commitment to the projects.
Since the lab was formalized in 2006 there was always a large flow of incoming and outgoing students depending on their period in college. At first the team was small and there were few projects. Over time, many communities and partners came to the lab seeking help to carry out projects, but with a small staff, the laboratory could not meet all the demand.
Given this fact, the team began to grow and the quantity of volunteers multiplied in the laboratory. There was a congruence of factors that led to this:
1- There was an externally repressed need to work on design as a social agent. Students did not have many opportunities to gain practical experience in a more social design role, because the internship opportunities were mostly in commercial and marketing areas. There was interest coming from the students to try this new experience of social design.
2 - There were external needs, coupled with the wishes of students and teachers to explore design practices for creative communities, there was an external demand from the communities and this connection from the internal and external actors led the lab to expand.
The respondent cannot imagine another way of operating the lab other than combining the volunteer work of the students and teachers with the structure of the university, which offers the supporting infrastructure. In addition, external receptivity is essential; the communities are key actors in the consolidation of projects.
2007 - NAS DESIGN was founded - The laboratory of systemic approach (NAS DESIGN) was founded and was registered as a CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) group. At the same time, the Master’s Program in Design was created at the UFSC, the Lab was part of it and became part of a specific research topic "systemic design".
2007-2009- NAS DESIGN participated in the project LOLA. During the years from 2007 until 2009, the Laboratory of Systemic Approach (NAS DESIGN) participated in the project LOLA (Looking for Likely Alternatives), which 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.
2010- Partnerships with cooperatives and associations - Since 2010, the group became known by researchers nationally and was developindeveloped partnerships that increased the number of active participants and projects.
In general, the laboratory has suffered prejudice because it works with volunteers and does not charge for the services that are offered to the communities.
There is a national institution in Brazil that serves communities with entrepreneurship methodologies (SEBRAE - Service to support micro and small companies) and there is an adversarial relationship between this institution and the laboratory because the NAS DESIGN Lab also develops some entrepreneurial projects.
Even if the methodologies are different and the projects have different views, SEBRAE considers NAS DESIGN Lab as a competitor. Facing the fact that SEBRAE charges for its services and NAS DESIGN does not, there is an attempt to discredit the work of the Lab in the communities and in the market as a whole:
"they tried to discredit us because we work as a volunteering space whitin the university. Volunteering is not viewed favorably because, according to SEBRAE, volunteers are less engaged than those who are employed".
This kind of criticism unfolds in the receiving communities projects. They think that the work is not good because they are not charged for it. The interviwee said they heard things like: "If it's free, it must not be good.".
The interviewee also reported that this problem is now being overcome in the communities because they perceived the lab’s engagement and contributions, and therefore there is much less resistance. Therefore, the laboratory has increase the number of partners interested in developing projects.
Considering the involvment of the university in this matter, UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) supports the Lab in the work process and with infrastructure because it produces relevant scientific work for the institution.
The lab coordinators thought they would have problems with commitment and engagement working with volunteers. So, since the beginning, the laboratory has formulated strategies to engage students through their interest in projects, by linking internal projects with final course thesis or providing research and extension grants to financially support the student as she/he works for the Lab.
There is a strong appreciation in relation to the internal culture in the laboratory; they always rely on its mission, vision and values. For the interviewee, distributing the time between orientation and work is essential for everyone to feel a sense of belonging within the environment.
As for conflicts with external institutions, the respondent said they were not anticipated, but also that those confrontations did not directly affect the laboratory. He said they learned to deal with criticism and worked to improve their projects, instead of trying to imitate what the non-direct competitor was doing.
They expected to receive support from the university, and indeed this support is still received today.
Regarding the teaching of design, the interviewee said that working with volunteer students from the design course showed a new role for teachers considering the research and outreach activity groups within the university. According to the respondent, the laboratory is a very rich complementary activity for all students who work there.
Considering the design professional’s activities, there is a learning curve in relation to the social role of the designer and the lack of such opportunities for students and teachers. For the respondent "practical experience in the field teaches a lot and yet very few students have this experience before going into the real market".
As for the lab staff, in addition to an awareness of project´s period and management, the respondent considers that the equal exchange that the laboratory promotes between students and teachers is very important, as weel as the horizontalization of speech they practice. According to him, this is a behavior that occurs naturally with students of all levels and teachers in the NAS DESIGN lab and is a type of relationship that should be a common practice in all work environments.
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