ENCOUNTER#9, superhero or design zero?

Increasingly, designers play a role in healthcare. For instance, they focus on the person behind the condition, take a holistic approach or train (future) care professionals. Yet the combination of design and care is no naturally successful. There are pitfalls and unexpected challenges that require adaptability and mutual understanding. 

ENCOUNTER#9 takes a critical look at the use of design in elderly care. With humour and irony, designer Joost van Wijmen positions himself as the anti-superhero. He examines the relativity of failure and success and shows how promising theory relates to often unruly practice.

The project consisted of a series of designed encounters between elderly and young people being trained as well-being professionals. By combining the design perspective with reflections from participants, partners and other stakeholders – who in turn depict their own roles as superheroes – a multi-voiced picture of the complex reality of (social) design within care emerges.

The participating designer is Joost van Wijmen, Stichting ENCOUNTER