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Le Petit Bayle is a house in France that was designed by Jef Smith, a member of Kent School of Architecture's Centre for Architecture and Sustainable Environment, as co-designer with Victoria Thornton, completed in 2008, and which is Smith's output JS1. The range and significance of this impact is demonstrated through its dissemination to a broad and international audience of architects; architecture students in general; and architectural technicians / other building and design practitioners through a range of media. Wide coverage of the project already demonstrates impact on the primary dissemination media for architects. In addition, the house has been used as an exemplar project by L'Espace Info Énergie du Conseil d'Architecture d'Urbanisme et de l'Environnement de Midi-Pyrénées (EIE / CAUE) in France which has included study visits and public exhibitions, reaching a wide and international variety of readers and viewers from those with a general interest to specialists working in related fields. The continuing research project consists not only of the design of the house and its execution, but also of observation, post-occupancy assessment, and the formulation for new research and design principles.
Le Petit Bayle has been chosen as a case study by Dr Avi Friedman of the McGill School of Architecture to feature in his forthcoming book Sustainable Dwellings.
Work by Carmona et al has supported the national drive for better design in the built environment, helping to mainstream ideas about the importance of urban design and develop tools for design governance. A major strand of this research has focused on the use and potential of design codes in England, and has been a major contributor to their widespread adoption. As a result, by 2012, some 45% of local authorities and 66% of urban design consultants had used design codes.
Professor Follett's research in craft, design and business, developed through the AHRC-funded Past-Present-Future-Craft-Practice project[2,7], has identified the need for a national design centre. This research has led to the development of the V&A Dundee concept, a £45m centre for design opening 2016/17.
Follett established Design-in-Action, Knowledge Exchange Hub delivering an innovation network, with 450 SMEs and six new products by September 2013, creating a sustainable investment portfolio and "a model of innovation for the sector" — quote by the AHRC.
Impacts of this research consist of:
Gage's research in interactive architecture since the 1990s has influenced the working methods of a sizeable community of SME architectural and environmental design practices, mainly in London, and in some cases significantly extended the scope of their services. The research has established and strengthened innovative exchange between academia, professions and creative industries and led to the creation of a number of new specialist and award-winning design companies with international profiles. One of these developed intellectual property sold in 2011 for over $15m, while another won a RIBA National Award for design excellence in collaboration with Bartlett staff.
The Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria, which emerged from UCL research by Cook and Fournier, and opened in 2003, has had a substantial and sustained impact on the city. Indeed, it has become a key symbol in Graz and a major contributor to tourism and increased visitor figures due to its innovative and iconic design. It has led the regeneration of the once-depressed district it is located in — a fact the city then acknowledged in its successful application to become an UNESCO `City of Design' in 2011. The dramatic external form and spaces within the building have inspired groundbreaking new curatorial practices that have since been applied by its curators elsewhere.
Research at Kingston University led by Hilary Dalke has established the beneficial effects of colour design for application in long-term health care environments for people with neural disabilities. This work has led to the development of spatial design principles for improving the experience of service users, patients and staff.
Through her consultancy work with architectural firms, individual NHS hospitals, mental health units, independent charities and healthcare furniture and equipment suppliers such as Hill-Rom, Dalke has influenced their understanding of the issues involved, leading to improved design in hospitals, care homes and day centres, with consequent benefits for patients, staff and visitors in four institutions.
Design thinking has benefited the economic performance of business and particularly the creative industries, changed awareness of design in everyday life, and informed public policy. Users and consumers have benefited from wider understanding of the genesis of products and services and effects on their quality of life. Design thinking research has been instrumental in forming a new business sector that provides design thinking expertise as consultancy. It has changed the processes of designers and design practices, and fed into UK design education policy. Design thinking has crossed discipline boundaries; for example framing new methods and processes in software engineering.
The i~design research programme, which has been running in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) since 2000, sought to understand population diversity in order to better inform design decisions for mainstream everyday products and services. Impact from this programme, since 2008, includes: skills embedded in companies through direct training of over 280 designers and design managers from industry; direct involvement in the improved design of more than 10 new products and services that have gone into production; educational resources for teaching Design and Technology trialled in nine secondary schools; over 800 wearable impairment simulators sold; and extensive web-based guidance, methods and tools for inclusive design accessed in over 170 countries.
In late 2010 Professor Sanderson decided to form the Flux ceramics spin-out company at Staffordshire University in order to exploit a significant market gap he had discovered via his KTP research project for Aynsley China Ltd., Stoke-on-Trent. Flux has been able to exploit the market gap discovered in a way that Aynsley China was unwilling to pursue. Flux has produced cutting edge ceramic tableware design that has been successful in terms of both sales and recognition as a valuable contribution to contemporary tableware design. Flux won the Home and Gardens Design Award in 2012.
Campbell's research on Basil Spence has delivered a reassessment of the work and significance of one of Britain's most important post-war architects after nearly three decades of critical neglect. The impacts include informing the strategies of Historic Scotland and English Heritage for listing and conserving historic buildings; and increasing public knowledge and appreciation of Spence's contribution to modern British architecture. These impacts have been delivered to research users — the heritage sector, managers and users of Spence's buildings, and the general public — via public engagement activities which comprised a touring exhibition, public lectures, workshops and non-academic conferences; popular publications; and advice to heritage organisations.