International group of students and teachers took part in the BaltSe@nioR international design workshops organized at the Art Academy of Latvia in Riga.
Altogether 30 students from three countries (Poland, Latvia and Estonia) were engaged in a four day project on substituting senior citizen body and mind ageing process with active lifestyle. The fifth day was dedicated to explore Latvian furniture design also from historical and cultural point of view and based on that build inspiration for further works. Every workshop morning began with lectures designed to strengthen the mind. On the first day, senior stereotypes were broken by rock musician Aigars Krēsla, fashion designer Natālija Jansone and architect Aigars Vilnītis. Participants were inspired and invigorated by great minds of various disciplines, including social anthropologist Viesturs Celmiņš, digital architect Reinis Adovičs, Latvian fitness and healthcare development association “LFVVNA” chair Gints Kuzņecovs as well as the head of scientific development at Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine professor Juris Salaks and the „Danse Macabre” exhibition curator Ieva Lībiete. During the workshops students were divided into 3 international teams.
The workshops concluded with the developed product exhibition organized at the Art Academy of Latvia.
3 international groups – Accessories, Body and Furniture.
- Accessories
Develop design solutions for digital gadgets and environment to increase and maintain mental agility and brain power. - Body
Design environment, product, campaign or service to encourage physical activities among ageing populations preferable in outdoor environment. - Furniture
Adapt existing products, completing details or concepts of the future needs of future seniors or/and create the new solutions or gauges.
The BaltSe@nioR international design workshops were organized in order to stimulate and enrich cooperation between Polish, Latvian and Estonian partners, being a good opportunity to get to know each other better, and first of all to discover the advantages of cooperation in multinational teams of designers and engineers working together on the subject of designing for seniors. It was to share experiences and lessons learned so far in the subject of designing for elderly. It was the next activity performed within WP3 to discover what are the possibilities of using various methodologies in the case of creating new products adapted to the needs of senior generation. The aim was also to raise awareness among young designers and furniture constructors concerning requirements of the successful process of designing for seniors but also the needs seniors have and how to design products to fulfil them.