1. DAC/MAID Design for Difference
LIST OF WORKS
The Road
Thomas Maisey - The Dominator
Si Chen - Buses on the road
Yu Han Wan - Shared Parking
Szu Wen Wang - Marquee
The Commons
Victor Johansson - Shared space crossing
Paolo Nazzari - Toilets Gallery
Social Space for Learning Disabilities and Community Engagement
Lucie Barouillet - KBC Agenda
Anton Bob Kraus - Conflict Basics Card Deck
Masami Charlotte Lavault - Pro/Contra
Pierre Papet - Solve a conflict
The Neighbourhood
Martyna Bielecka - Pigeons
Rémi Perrichon - Happy Flat
Ian Thomas - The Sound Proof Booth
Yi Zhou - Neighbourhood bins
The School
Rahul Boggaram - Antonym Virus
Jing Luo - Self-bullied
The Workplace
Liliana Simões Carvalho - The Card. What Card?
Alexandra Sidorenko - Smuggle
Chun-Ling Wu - The Mask
Cai-Jun Yang - SmartCard Black Market

2. Critical
The Road
Thomas Maisey
The Dominator
This project focuses on the three conflicting areas existing on the road today between cyclists and cars,
these being feeling, seeing and hearing each other. I began by getting some footage with a camera fixed to
a helmet. The presence of the camera made the experience on the road much more pleasurable as other
road users became more aware and conscious of their actions while being filmed. The camera made them
‘behave’, as a figure of authority like a police man on a bike would do. This psychological effect lead me to
examine what other tactics could be used on the road for cyclists to feel safer, be heard and become more
visible. The psychological markers already set out on the road systems do work, but with the increasing
popularity of cycling, grey areas expand. My design probe, ‘The Dominator’, stimulates psychological
awareness about cycle safety while setting physical boundaries. The design probes I have used are an
exploration of the gap between the physical and psychological world.
The defence frame around the bike allows the cyclist to claim her/his own space while riding on the road.
It keeps cars out of the bike zone at traffic lights and makes the cyclist feel safer - maintaining the safety
distance between cyclist and car. The flag allows lorry drivers of class 1 & 2 to see the cyclist, whilst the
horns allow the latter to be heard by cars, lorries and buses. The Dominator has been tested out and
successfully improved cycling safety and pleasure on the road.
Video

6. Empathetic
The Road
Si Chen
Buses on the road
I focused on multiple routes bus stops - as they are often staging conflicts between drivers and
passengers.
Typically, many people wait at these bus stops, while many buses stop by simultaneously. A great
confusion arises - passengers can fail to see that their bus has arrived, and/or cannot/do not move
quickly enough towards the bus, sometimes placed at the end of a queue of several buses. Especially the
physically impaired (mobility and/or vision) passengers, people with children and people carrying heavy
loads find themselves in a stressful situation. On the other hand, drivers cannot always discern their
passengers among the crowd of waiting travellers. They are tied to a strict time schedule and often have
to confront angry or rude passengers. After a short wait, buses drive off quickly, leaving behind frustrated
and angry travellers.
A redesign of the space of the bus stop could have a positive influence on this ‘wicked’ situation - on one
hand, by increasing the perceivability of both parties of the conflict and helping drivers and travellers to
place themselves at the right spot on the other.
A multicolor LED strip is placed along the pavement, marking the whole length of the multiple route bus
stop area. Each route is associated with a colour. When a traveller reaches the bus stop, she/he has to
press a button, to signal her/his wished route. Bus drivers are subsequently informed of the number of
passengers waiting for them at each stop. When a bus approaches the stop, a section of the LED strip
illuminates in the route’s colour, highlighting the zone where passengers should gather to get on the bus.

8. Agonism
The Road
Yu Han Wan
Shared parking
A recurrent street conflict in Taïwan rises when residents occupy parking places in front of their houses by setting up plants or furniture - preventing drivers from parking right before their front door. Although
these residents do not own these slots, their behaviour implies that they consider them as extensions of
their property. For drivers, this appropriation means wasting long minutes or hours looking for a parking
space.
Could residents and drivers share these spaces?
Shared parking is a communication platform where users arrange time slots for occupying parking lots,
according to their needs. One parking lot can be used by many different users. On shared parking,
residents and public users can directly negotiate instead of getting angry at unknown ‘offenders’.
Shared parking consists of a smart phone app linked to parking meters.
Drivers can search and book a parking slot before arriving, using the shared parking smartphone app.
When they park, they can leave a message to the attention of the residents as well as their phone number
on the receipt printed by the parking meter.
Thanks to the direct communication means shared parking provides, conflict can be minimised though not
eradicated - conflicts henceforth happen in a transparent, honest way: unknown drivers can be ‘tracked
down’ and residents, actually not legally allowed to use these street spaces as their own, still have a
possibility to do so - as long as they share.

10. Agonistic
The Road
Szu Wen Wang
Marquee
Bus drivers and passengers share the confined space of the bus during the time of their common travel.
But many things can make the sharing difficult - ticketing issues, time pressure, rude behaviour and so on.
In their cabin, bus drivers are separated from passengers. Their main instruction is to focus on driving,
while travellers are reminded not to speak to the driver. In this often highly emotionally loaded space,
non-communication is the rule.
But how do drivers feel throughout their shifts? What would they complain about if they were allowed to
do so? What are the stories they would want to share with their passengers? Did something interesting
happen on the bus yesterday?
Interviewing several bus drivers helped uncover their wish to have their say. A great frustration is gathered
during daily conflicts, while a great friendliness gets lost behind the glass panel of the cabin.
The functions of the artefacts that accompany our daily bus rides could be changed to increase driverpassenger intimacy. Particularly, two readily available communication devices (the LED display which
announces the final destination/the next stop as well as the CCTV monitors) could be subverted.
The bus driver can display stories and thoughts on the LED display, whilst broadcasting his favourite TV
show on the CCTV channels.
The subversion of bus displays eases the communication between passengers and driver while
transforming the space of the bus into a platform to accommodate multiple voices. It empowers the
minority: bus drivers get a chance to voice their needs, concerns and joys.
Video

12. Agonistic
The Commons
Victor Johansson
Shared space crossing
The pedestrian crossing outside of Lewisham DLR and Southeastern train station is a very busy area.
Around 70% of Lewisham’s 300.000 residents work out of the borough - twice a day, both pedestrians and
car drivers gather densely in and around the station.
Observing, filming and photographing the street crossing during rush hours (morning and evening) and at
midday enables one to document the different nuances of the human flow in this area.
Interviews of local residents - some of them having been living in the neighbourhood for more than 30
years - helped to understand drivers’ and pedestrians’ perspectives.
Every morning and evening, conflicts rise between car drivers and pedestrians - due to the latter crossing
when they shouldn’t, hurrying to catch their train, and drivers congesting the zebra stripes or driving off
too fast, endangering passersby. How do both parties negotiate their part of this common space? What
happens if we take into consideration that the same person can be pedestrian at times and driver at
others?
Drawing on shared space principles, the crossing could become an area of constant negotiation. In
this new configuration, two objects are implemented to improve communication: boards to inform
pedestrians and car drivers about the next train departure - according to train emergency, either cars or
pedestrians have priority on the crossing.
Stop buttons in two versions (one for cars, one for pedestrians) turn on a red light, forcing the other to get
out of the way. The buttons empower the users, who do not only negotiate the space but get the means
to question the conventions of traffic systems.

16. Agonistic
The Commons
Paolo Nazzari
Toilets Gallery
Public toilets in London are an unexpected stage of conflict, in which regular toilet users, hoping to find
clean and functioning WC, are disturbed by the graphic treatment applied on walls by graffiti artists,
looking to satisfy their need for expression.
Would the conflict still arise if public toilets were converted into legal canvases for street artists? Could the
experience of use be enhanced through aesthetic stimulation?
Toilets Gallery is a network of (to-be-) painted toilets throughout the city. Painters register and get the
right to paint one of the cabins. The registered community of users receives regular updates on new works
of street (toilet) art, open to comments, liking and disliking.

18. Agonistic
Social Space for Learning Disabilities and Community Engagement
Lucie Barouillet, Anton Bob Kraus, Masami Charlotte Lavault, Pierre Papet
The trouble with the closure of the Ken Boyce Centre
At the launch of the project, a conflict had been growing for several months around the Ken Boyce
Day Care Centre in Erith, southeast London, opposing its users - around 40 young adults with learning
disability - to its provider, Bexley Council. Our task was to visualise this situation and address it through
design. Starting by visiting the centre, we met the users and interviewed their carers and parents. These
meetings provided us a great insight in the situation, whilst challenging our attempts to remain impartial.
We repeatedly tried to get in touch with the Council - to no avail. Consequently, we had to cope with the
lack of balance of the information available.
As a main response to the conflict, we created a blog, kbcaction.blogspot.com, to document our research,
design work, and response to the conflict. It is also, and mainly, a communication platform for all the
people and institutions involved or interested in the Ken Boyce Centre conflict. An open space to react and
share.
Videos

21. Agonistic
Social Space for Learning Disabilities and Community Engagement
Lucie Barouillet
Ken Boyce Centre Agenda
This is an agenda delivered by Bexley Council to the people involved in the conflict. It is a method
designed to build a project in a limited time, which meets both the requirements of the Council, and
the needs of the community. This concept is based on the insight that in the KBC conflict, the Council
does not really seem to consider alternatives. During one of the meetings with the parents, a Council’s
representative announced that if they wanted a centre, users would have to look for a new location
themselves. Co-design seems to be an appropriate answer in this case. Taking the Council’s words literally,
why not hand over the project direction to the people who are the most affected, who otherwise feel
completely ignored?
This KBC Agenda involves users, parents, carers and key-workers by helping them fleshing out their ideas.
From our interviews, we realised that these people have a lot of suggestions. They only miss a frame, a
structure to organise and develop their project: finding a new location for the Ken Boyce Centre.
The agenda is divided in three parts. In each of these parts, both collective and individual activities
are suggested. Each member has an individual agenda which guides him/her throughout the project
development. The group activities are supported by a kit including rules, a hourglass, a map of the area, a
calculator, symbolic space dividers...
The first phase is devoted to the analysis of the needs - list everybody’s requirements.
The second phase is a research of alternatives - collect ideas, explore the spaces available locally and get
in touch with the community.
The third phase is the development or formulation of the project in terms of location, cost, services and
organisation.
The rules are designed for different purposes: neutrality, or impartiality between all the members,
efficiency (as there is a date of expiration) and consideration of the Council’s constraints.
In the box, a kit of cards and tools facilitates group work at each stage of the project.

23. Agonistic
Social Space for Learning Disabilities and Community Engagement
Anton Bob Kraus
Conflict Basics Card Deck
This response is based on the insight that the users’ parents were at a very early stage of organisation
when we interviewed them. I realized that among other things, setting up a contact list, scheduling
discussion forums and electing a spokes(wo)man were highly important tasks to ensure efficiency, but
were not as easy to implement as it seems. The parents, a loose group of individuals sharing the same
interests when we met them, needed to plan their action.
The „Conflict Basics“ playing cards aim to support the togetherness of a conflict group.
By combining the group forming and communication supporting characteristics of a traditional parlour
game, „Conflict Basics“ provides suggestions to what to do if you find yourself in a conflict and have to
face an opponent.
While playing, the users get to know the hints displayed on the cards. These tips are easy to recall in a
later conflict situation.
Depending on the colours, the cards provide suggestions on four focus points: public, relation, action and
organisation. The suggestions are also rated regarding to the number.

26. Agonistic
Social Space for Learning Disabilities and Community Engagement
Masami Charlotte Lavault
Pro/Contra Campaign
A pair of posters presents two diametrically opposed points of view on the Ken Boyce Centre closure
conflict. Displayed all over the town of Erith - in cafés, shops and community buildings - the posters
expose the validity of radical opinions and address the necessity to question one’s arguments as much as
those of the “other”. The drawings are portraits of actual Erith residents and KBC users.
The campaign is initiated by the Council and the association of KBC parents/users. The reactions of
the audience are awaited on the blog kbcaction. An agonistic space is collectively created through the
analogue stimulus on the street and the resulting digital output on the Internet.
This campaign is a call for civic initiative and activism. The choice of the poster as a medium is, I think,
adapted to the recipient: individuals of various ages and social backgrounds, living in a relatively small
suburbian town, knowing each other from seeing.
We created the blog with the intention to pass over its administration to (one of ) the parents. The mother
of one of the most loyal users of the centre has manifested interest in this activity. We offered to return
to Erith to introduce her to the practice of blogging. We set up open comments with a possibility for the
administrator to edit/delete inappropriate or abusive interventions.
The aim of the campaign is to encourage individual participation in public affairs, through stimuli and tools
legible and accessible to a great number of Erith residents.

28. Agonistic
Social Space for Learning Disabilities and Community Engagement
Pierre Papet
Solve a conflict KBC edition
My response addresses the lack of communication between the different parties involved in the conflict.
“Solve a conflict KBC edition” is a tool - in the form of a board game - allowing each party to perceive the
level of satisfaction of the other.
The board is made of three parts: a timer, alternative cards and a tension scale. The timer has to be set up
at the beginning of the game session and will divide the consultation time by three. Like a chess timer, it
allows each player - i.e. party - to have the same amount of speaking time.
Each player has a token linked to the others by an elastic band representing the tension between each
participant. Throughout the game, players see the conflict evolve on the tension scale and use the
alternative cards to make and rate new propositions. These alternative cards can help building a basis for
the future of the Ken Boyce Center.
“Solve a conflict” encourages the creation of an agonistic space in which each conflict party can have their
say, in a regimented though playful manner.

30. Agonistic
The Neighbourhood
Martyna Bielecka
Pigeons
On the balconies of the council estates of Warsaw, pigeons trigger heated conflicts. Inhabitants of
block‑flats are sometimes given a small part of the outside world: a balcony. This space, rarely larger than
one square meter, can soon become the epicentre of territorial conflicts, opposing pro- and contra-pigeon
neighbours.
In this type of architecture, neighbours don’t meet very often. Typically, polish council estates have two
entrances/exits, making it very easy for inhabitants to elude conflicts.
Pigeons are the third party in this conflict, and could thus be used as a mean of communication - a job
they have been trained for during centuries.
“Pigeons” is a platform for indirect communication situated in a common area of the building, including
a board and a set of pigeon-shaped building blocks. Positive or negative emotions are written on each
pigeon. People can express themselves with the proposed medium as well as build something together.
My aim wasn’t to solve the problem of pigeon feeding/hating but to propose a space where both parties
could meet (even if not in person) and interact.

33. Agonistic
The Neighbourhood
Rémi Perrichon
Happy Flat website
What is (a) neighbourhood? Is it the whole district in which one lives, or rather what we can see and hear
from our windows?
I started playing Sims to experience different levels of neighbourhood. At first, I didn’t have enough money
to run several houses, which is why I decided to put all my characters together in a flatshare. I made them
step in to say hello, invite each other over, launch group gardening sessions. All these activities, essential
to this game, upgraded my marks. This virtual life was a reflection of the existence and routine of many
Londoners. To cope with the high accommodation costs, students as well as professionals have to share
flats.
Back in real life, I set up a questionnaire, divided in four different parts (space, time, sound, conflict) which
led me to the conclusion that if people live together, they often don’t share a lot. They have different
schedules, lifestyles, cleaning habits but also a great variety of skills.
My concept is a flatshare gaming website - an e-agonistic space to accommodate and articulate difference.
It provides a communication platform, a conflict agora and a pool to share skills and experiences, and
finally a system of assessment and rewarding of the efforts made by and for the community.

37. Critical
The Neighbourhood
Ian Thomas
Noisy neighbours - The Sound Proof Booth
Noise complaints are common in city neighbourhoods. But is noise the genuine cause of these conflicts or
one of the consequences of a broader issue?
For personal and professional reasons, people move to large cities, contributing to the densification
of megalopolises like London. Old town houses, originally designed to house five or six people, are
now divided into three or four flats and shelter up to double if not triple the planned amount of
inhabitants. These people often lead varied lifestyles, built around different schedules. With enhanced
communication technologies, workplace and living space merge. Monday to Friday, nine-to-five jobs are
not common anymore - boundaries between work and spare time, between conventional and divergent
working hours disappear. In this complex context, proximity is presumably the underlying issue and cause
of neighbourhood conflicts, and noise a mere symptom thereof.
A possible response to this ‘wicked’ situation is the Sound Proof Booth. This noise-insulating cell, delivered
in a flat pack, gives users the opportunity to obtain that silence they so deeply crave within their home.
While the assembly of the booth may be quite noisy, the efforts of the builder are rewarded by the gain
of a confined, claustrophobia-inducing space. The Sound Proof Booth suggests to the user that instead of
isolating oneself and accumulating frustration, one should strive to communicate and directly address the
problem.

40. Empathetic
The Neighbourhood
Yi Zhou
Neighbourhood Bins
Following conversations with a mediator from Camden Town Community, a policeman and a resident of
the borough of Hackney, I realised that many neighbourhood conflicts arise from... garbage bins.
Residents find their bins always full - though not with their own rubbish - which leads them to also dispose
of their waste in other neighbours’ bins. This vicious circle nourishes anger, day by day, bag by bag. Apart
from the accumulation of garbage in one’s bin, the actual conflict is invisible and there is few chance to
catch the “offenders” in action.
My response to this is to materialise the conflict and to use semi-transparent plastic bins tainted in a
colour gradient symbolising the level of anger - from blue, green, yellow to red. The idea is to show clearly
how full the bin is and link this with the possible consequences of overfilling someone else’s garbage
container. The bins function as a warning and an invitation to rethink one’s actions.

46. Empathetic
The School
Rahul Boggaram
Antonym Virus
Cyber-bullying is a significant problem costing the UK £18 million a year with 350,000 children
cyber‑bullied. The focus of the action against cyber‑bullying is often put on repairing the damages rather
than preventing them.
Mapping the feelings of trolls (cyber offenders) and bullies revealed an urgent need for more empathy.
The saying ‘Be good do good’ lead me to the idea of a virus infecting nasty comments by finding and
posting the antonyms of the words used by the troll on the social network wall of his/her victim. In return,
the initial mean comment would be posted on the troll’s own wall.

48. Empathetic
The School
Jing Luo
Self-bullied
Victims of cyber-bullying are often young individuals, highly familiar with Internet social network
platforms such as facebook, twitter, et c. For the general public, it is hard to comprehend the motivations
of offenders, whilst difficult to understand the depth of the feelings and emotions experienced by bullies how it can, in some cases, lead to suicide.
Immersed in a confined empathy cabin, outsiders can alternatively play the role of the offender and of the
victim. A computer connected to a fictional social network is placed in the cell - the user can post mean
comments to the person they decide to virtually bully. At this moment, the cabin becomes very dark and
the temperature drops, jeers resonate from speakers installed in the space - which allows the user to
viscerally feel the emotions a victim may experience.

50. Empathetic
The Workplace
Liliana Simões Carvalho
The Card. What Card?
This project focuses on the tensions between liberty and security in the Granary Building, home of Central
Saint Martins College of Arts and Design.
We identified the ID card as a materialisation of the university security system. Interviews helped us
defining two antagonistic user groups: a first cohort of students, general staff and visitors - recipients and
users of the security system - and a second group of duty holders (Head of College, Facilities Department)
who provide the security system, whilst also being users.
Two diverging reactions to the ID card could be profiled: suspicion (industrial city/ collective regime)
or hope (inspiration city/ singular regime). Both groups have the same appraisal of the importance of
security issues and share similar frustrations regarding the flaws of the system.
The ID card conflict at Central Saint Martins can be characterised as a public dispute. According to
pragmatic sociologists Boltanski and Thévenot, a public dispute takes place when two or more groups of
actors have different opinions on the same matter but are determined to reach social consensus through
an exchange of justifications or reasons. The authors add that the aim of these public discussions is to get
an agreement between different axiological subsystems and avoid social conflicts. If we set an increased
communication between the two parties and an emphasis on their common values as our aim, then
empathy seems to be the right strategy.
In a parodic short film, a simulacrum of the situation, two characters restlessly argue about a card, unable
to articulate clearer arguments than “- Where’s your card? - What card?”. This video is the premiss of a
live performance “The Card. What Card?”, scheduled on the opening night of the project exhibition, taking
place at College.
CCTV cameras record the flow of arriving guests, systematically asked by a performer to show a card
when passing the gates. Unaware of the necessity to have a card to get access, the guests will respond
spontaneously to this unexpected demand. The CCTV records are broadcasted in the exhibition space,
with a five minutes delay. The purpose of this apparatus is to generate a discussion among the guests and
promote an exchange of ideas and opinions around the ID card, i.e. the security system.
Video

53. Critical
The Workplace
Alexandra Sidorenko
Smuggle
The strict security system of the university forbids to bring in any guests. Students’ attempts to show their
workplace to their parents are not crowned with success. For family members, the desire to see where
their loved one spends their day - and family funds - is not mere curiosity. Rather, it is care, attention and
the need to calm anxiety. Furthermore, one could argue that the isolation of the College from the outer
world contradicts the agenda and essence of arts and design : articulate the beauty of the world in fresh
ideas, in a perpetual intellectual and aesthetic back and forth.
Arts and design students often transport bulky pieces of luggage containing their tools, materials or
finished work. Security personal never control the contents of these bags and cases. Why couldn’t we take
full advantage of our creativity needs and luggage freedom and simply smuggle our relatives in?
Smuggle is a suitcase large enough to contain a human being in seating position - absolutely banal on the
outside, it reveals an oxygen mask, an oxygen tank and lighting in the inside. Inner padding and casing
make the seating as comfortable as possible.
Video

54. Critical
The Workplace
Chun-Ling Wu
The Mask
In the Granary building, the security system doesn’t merely controls the access to the building, but also
inside the building - with their ID card, users (students and staff) get access to a specific set of rooms.
This spatial control system is linked with an array of services available (or not) throughout the university:
borrowing books from the library, scanning, copying and printing documents, parking bicycles in the
basement of the college, et c. Every door is equipped with a card reader.
This extensive network of control and services has primarily been implemented to secure the building and
prevent ‘tourist’ theft. The status of this system is clearly ambivalent, as well as the boundaries between
virtual and physical identity.
In the building, we all become our cards, we are nothing without our cards. We become cyborgs, our
identities augmented by our ID chips. We become faceless.
The mask raises this issue, and lets people question the frontiers between self and technology, individual
wellbeing and common good.
Video

56. Critical
The Workplace
Cai Jun Yang
SmartCard Black-market
In the brand new Granary Building, much conflict arises from the reluctance of users towards the use
of the SmartCard system - felt as a misanthropic control machine. On the other hand, the SmartCard
duty holders have to maintain security and prevent external theft. The dystopian fiction of the rise of a
smartcard black-market stimulates critical thinking about the balance between liberty and security. It
helps users and duty holders understand each other better. Probes from this future illegal ID card market
question the limits of contemporary security systems.
Video