Living in a ‘VUCA’ World – The Importance of Co-Design!

Guest: Pinar Guvenc, Partner, SOUR Studio

(Music / Open)

Janet: In this series we will be discussing specific examples of design techniques that make a positive difference for people living with certain human conditions.

Carolyn: The more a designer understands the client and or the community the more effective and respectful the design will be.

(Music / Intro)

Janet: Welcome to Inclusive Designers Podcast, I am your host, Janet Roche…

Carolyn: and I am your moderator, Carolyn Robbins…

Janet: Carolyn, we have a great show to share with everyone today! But first, I’m happy to say that ‘Feedspot’ still has us as one of the “Best Design Podcasts on the Internet”

Carolyn: … and a big ‘thank you’ to you our listeners for that!

Janet: Exactly

Carolyn: And I think this episode should continue to keep us on that list too.

Janet: Definitely, and especially because our guest today is Pinar Guvenc… a partner at SOUR Studio, where they understand the importance of co-design, and also what it means for inclusive designers.

Carolyn: Fun fact, not only is their name ‘SOUR’ a play on the words ‘Social’ and ‘Urban’ but it also describes their “we’re not going to sugar-coat it” attitude.

Janet: And that attitude helps her, and her team, tackle global design challenges, using collaborative research to find the best solutions. She has some great examples that she will share.

Carolyn: But first, let me tell you a little more about Pinar Guvenc… She is a partner at SOUR, an international, award-winning hybrid design studio with the mission of addressing social and urban problems. At SOUR, Pinar leads their business and design strategy. Their work includes projects from architecture to urban design to product design.

As they describe themselves, quote, “we don’t shy away from challenges. We embrace the discomfort. We take our time— to research, synthesize, and ideate — in order to generate data-inspired and purposeful design solutions,” end quote.

Janet: Pinar will also explain what it means to live in a VUCA world, and the difference between complex and complicated systems.

Carolyn: If like me, you’ve never heard the term ‘VUCA world’ before, stay tuned, Pinar will explain it…

Janet: Yes she will, and we don’t want to keep anyone in suspense for too long, so let’s get to it!

Carolyn: Absolutely. And with that, here is our interview with Pinar Guvenc… Design strategy expert, co-design advocate & practitioner, educator, and forever student…

(Music / Interview)

Janet: Hello and thank you Pinar so much for joining us today on Inclusive Designers Podcast. How are you doing?

Pinar: Good, Janet. Thank you for having me. How are you?

Janet: I’m doing great. I know we just did a little overview about you, but I would love to hear in your own words who you are and what is SOUR and what do you guys do?

Pinar: Of course. Well, I’m Pinar, I’m partner at SOUR. We are a hybrid design studio with the mission of addressing social and urban problems. So as a mission list studio, we get to work on very diverse typology of work, whether that’s from architecture to urban design to product design. And our mission also really calls for us to have ongoing collaborative research.

So it’s very much in our DNA to practice co-design because that’s the only way we could actually serve our mission. It would be very naive for us to believe we can tackle global challenges on our own. I think we’re globally getting to that realization as well. And so that’s what we’re practicing.

And I guess the SOUR is a play on the words social and urban, but we also believe it represents our attitude. (laughs). We don’t shy away from discomfort. We embrace being in the gray. And when we first launched, we said there’s enough sugar coating in the world, so it’s time to get real and be SOUR. So that’s it.

Janet: Interesting. I love that, I really do. It’s, you know, like something like a lemon, right? It’s sour, but there’s something really great and refreshing about it.

Pinar: Yeah, It’s an acquired taste (Janet: Right). And it suits well with us because sometimes people don’t understand us, ‘What do you do exactly?’ Like you get to need to know us. You know? So I think in that sense it represents us. I remember this, this was actually like fun fact when we were first incorporating, I remember our attorney being, like noticing the foreigner names, right? And like maybe, (Janet: Uh, oh), “You do know what ‘sour’ means, right?” (Janet: No!). (laughs). And I’m like, yes.

Janet: Oh my goodness.

Pinar: He was very judgmental.

Janet: He was very judgmental. Oh my goodness, right, oh, I hope you fired him.

Pinar: Yeah. That might be the last time we chatted.

Janet: Oh, that’s wild. Well, let’s kind of hop into like what this means about co-design. I find this topic interesting and especially when we talk about being inclusive designers, right? I mean, it kind of goes hand in hand, but it also, I think it makes us better designers. Do you want to talk a little bit about your theories and your ideas about co-design?

Pinar: Of course. So, you know, obviously when we talk about like the definitions of co-design or parts of story design practices or inclusive design, it feels like a no-brainer and very common sense. But then just because it is common sense doesn’t mean it is common practice.