ITB Workshop Empowers Youth Refugees Through Design and Innovation

October 07, 2024 - ( update : 09-10-2024 )

By M. Naufal Hafizh

Editor M. Naufal Hafizh

Results of the Lexicon Intersectional Workshop at the CADL Building, Monday-Friday (23-27/9/2024). (ITB/Chysara Rabani)

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - Students of master’s program in Design Leadership, Faculty of Arts and Design, Institut Teknologi Bandung (FAD ITB) held an exhibition with the theme "Empowering Youth: Shaping the World Through Design" at the Center for Arts, Design, and Language (CADL) Building, Monday-Friday (23-27/9/2024). This event was a result of collaboration with the Design School, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London as well as Master of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Gadjah Mada University (UGM).

This exhibition acts as a continuation forum for sharing and reflection from the past workshop "Transition Living Lab: Transdisciplinary Design Collaboration Practice in Refugee Context" which was held in May 2024. The Transition Living Lab is a training service made to empower refugees as agents of change and to help them overcome real-world problems while fostering integration and resilience. During the workshop, students become facilitators for youth refugees from various backgrounds who were faced with related challenges.

This exhibition aims to spread important insights in the community to show the reality faced by teenage refugees that is often ignored. Despite the obstacles and limitations, they showed enthusiasm and a desire to change the global system around it.

This workshop results in two types of communal activities carried out by the youth refugees in the form of a workshop based on the systemic design framework.

Results of the UTOPIA: Crafting Your Smart City Through Bepe-bepean at the CADL Building, Monday-Friday (23-27/9/2024). (ITB/Chysara Rabani)

First, Intersectional Lexicon allows participants to actively use their imagination. Each participant was asked to think of their most memorable memory, then the memory was represented using an object to form a letter.

In this workshop, participants learned that objects could go way beyond the physical world. Objects can describe a memory or story that you want to tell. Participants also realized that there are different values from every experience they went through.

Secondly, UTOPIA: Crafting Your Smart City Through Bepe-bepean. This activity was made so the youth refugees can explore and share their personalities. Participants were invited to make a doll that represents their personality. After that, the doll is given additional accessories that represent their hopes and dreams.

This workshop fosters the creativity of its participants as well as their imagination of the future through self introspection of their abilities, hopes, and interests.

Through an exhibition that pushes the boundaries of design through a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, the team consisting of six ITB Master of Design Leadership 2023 students hope to help overcome and reshape the world's socio-cultural dynamics for a more equal future.

Reporter: Chysara Rabani (Mining Engineering, 2022)
Translator: Kezia Hosana (Chemical Engineering, 2022)
Editor: Hanifa Juliana (Urban and Regional Planning, 2020)