Vivita Estonia partnered with the Estonian Academy of Arts to offer a semester course in social design, focusing on co-creation with children. A multidisciplinary group of 8 bachelor students worked with 14 children to tackle the brief of reimagining the new creative studio, both spatially and content-wise. Intended as a collaborative process, this project invited children to shape their creative environment to ensure it reflected their needs, ideas, and ways of being together. Students and tutors committed to a process that involved children as equal design partners and created the conditions for shared decision-making. This was an opportunity for design students to experience how design decisions can be made in ways that protect children’s rights, amplify their voices, and ultimately enhance their daily lives. No longer able to rely on familiar ways of designing—such as using materials as a starting point or collecting information through user interviews,

the students were compelled to let go of pre-existing notions and limiting beliefs about designing for children and assume new responsibilities in designing with children.

The project outcomes made it evident that such cross-functional collaborations between designers, educators, and children as design partners at the fuzzy front end of the design process are fruitful and lead to meaningful insights and experiences for all parties involved.

Following this, Vivita Estonia continued to imagine and continuously transform the creative studio together with children.

Read the academic paper written on this project →