Transformative effects of co-design: The case of the “My Architect And I” project

In this paper, we present a co-design process intended to develop tools to improve the experience of architectural design services for single-family housing projects in Belgium. Our main goal is to identify the transformative effects of this co-design process from the lens of the experiences of participants. This paper is based on focus groups conducted with architects and user-clients for post-evaluation of the process. Findings include insights on (i) their experiences during the co-design process; on (ii) transformative effects such as changes in perspective (including empathy) and practice; and on (iii) ownership of the project and its outputs. This paper shows that co-design processes can have a lingering effect on participants, even more so on the ones showing up more than once. These observations help inform co-design processes, and more broadly participatory design research and practices.