Other Names: Social Design, Public Design, Social Architecture, User-Led Design, Participative Architecture,
A service that combines social and technical disciplinary understanding to both the understanding and output of the required product or system.
Socio-Technical Design Diagram( Rudolph Oosthuizen)
Summary
Socio-technical support speaks to an approach of providing support to an individual or group that simultaneously takes into account the human, social and organisational factors in relation to the technical dynamics and possibilities towards a set of needs or desires identified or requested by that user collective.
Socio-technical support in the built environment speaks to an approach that blends concepts and approaches of sociological disciplines with technical expertise of built environment practitioners, in order to better understand and respond to the physical built environment, which is fundamentally inter-linked with the people who regulate, design, construct and inhabit it. Although traditional design processes are inherently socio-technical, there is an endemic lack of focus or care in regard to the sociological side of contemporary design training and practice.
Examples of those who work through socio-technical support (around design) in the built environment.
South African
People Environment & Planning (PEP)
Global
Quick Reads
South African
Focus On: Design for Social Impact – Design Indaba
Social Design & Research – DSD Desis Lab
Social Design in South Africa – Arch Daily
Social Innovation & Enterprise – Bertha Centre
Global
Social Design in Architecture – Arch Daily
The Socio-Technical Design of Technical Systems– Interaction Design Foundation
Socio-Technical Systems – Strategos
Architecture as Social Innovation – Future Architecture Platform
Social Architecture – Huffington Post
Social Architecture: Designing for People – Re-Thinking the Future
Literature
South African
Design with the other 90%: Cumulus Johannesburg Conference Proceedings – Cumulus Johannesburg 2014
Global
Recommend Reading List – LSE
JSD_ZA Contributions on Socio-Technical Support (Design)
“…intelligent practice builds on the collective wisdom of people and organisations on the ground — those who think locally and act locally — which is then rationalised in ways that make a difference globally. In the language of ’emergence’, ‘it’s better to build a densely interconnected system with simple elements and let the more sophisticated behaviour trickle up.’ In this respect, good development practice facilitates emergence, it builds on what we’ve got and with it goes to scale ”
Nabeel Hamdi – Small Change
Jus't Spatial Design ZA 