ImaginationLancaster: Open-Ended, Anti-Disciplinary, Diverse
Other text in scientific journal, 2018

The paper is the story of building a design research group from scratch. As there has been some recent interest in design research as a team based activity, this article illustrates how we built the Imagination research team and how it continues to develop. This article gives us the chance to reflect on how far we have come in the last decade. Once we were a few dedicated members of staff wanting to bring design research to a small university in the north of the UK. Now we are one of the leading centers of excellence worldwide for design research. This article uses case studies from research projects and Ph.D. research to demonstrate Imagination’s research philosophy—open-ended and anti-disciplinary. We celebrate the plurality of ways design research is carried out. The article highlights how we use design research to address global challenges, and how these have also shaped our teaching and further research. We end by considering the value of design research and how we, as a team, can take Imagination forward into the next decade.

Teaching

Research groups

Global challenges

Methods

Philosophy

Author

Rachel Cooper

Lancaster University

Nick Dunn

Lancaster University

Paul Coulton

Lancaster University

Stuart Walker

Lancaster University

Paul Rodgers

Lancaster University

Leon Cruikshank

Lancaster University

Emmanuel Tesekleves

Lancaster University

David Hands

Lancaster University

Roger Whitham

Lancaster University

Christopher Boyko

Lancaster University

Daniel Richards

Lancaster University

Bijan Aryana

Lancaster University

Serena Pollastri

Lancaster University

Maria Alejandra Lujan Escalante

Lancaster University

Bran Knowles

Lancaster University

Carlos Lopez-Galviz

Lancaster University

Paul Cureton

Lancaster University

Claire Coulton

Lancaster University

She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation

2405-8726 (ISSN)

Vol. 4 4 307-341

Subject Categories

Architectural Engineering

Design

Interaction Technologies

DOI

10.1016/j.sheji.2018.11.001

More information

Latest update

7/26/2021