Design Researcher
Porto, Portugal
This contractual period with FEUP, allied with the developments within the scope of the master thesis, make up for a full year of total immersion in the social and environmental issues the planet faces nowadays. This project consisted in a collaboration with Oficina Design, a social workshop, in partnership with Matosinhos City Council and ADEIMA, in which a one-year training course was held for citizens in situations of social vulnerability or long-term unemployment. This design-led training course, allowed trainees to develop a series of products from discarded materials, alerting for the unsustainable production and consumption system.In this period, it was possible to back the training course as a trainer, contributing do different activities such as: manage and definition of exercises and calendars; exposition of theoretical classes; creative an technical orientation of trainees; support during higher education classes (MDIP); instruction and demonstration of the workshop’s equipment and machines; manage of the shopping and consumables list; maintenance of the workshop and it’s machines; support during definition and viabilization of products made from discarded materials- analysis of the production process, production, adjusts, package production, definition of cost and technical sheets; definition of a methodologic approach – embodied in a toolkit – through the introduction of design tools in the creative process, and posterior analysis and evaluation.This period became a unique professional and academic experience, allowing me to learn about group managing, methods and processes, materials and technologies and the use of discarded materials in product design. At a personal level, it was a role of great responsibility that allowed me to quickly mature and adapt to unforeseen scenarios (such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic).
