Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

This impact relates to a body of practice-based research undertaken by Professor Graeme Hutton (since 2000) and centres on a single output, `The Shed' (2009), a 500m² constructed residence and studio in rural Perthshire. The research has contributed to an advancement of thought and refinement of rural design practice internationally and locally. It has:

A. Informed a critical direction for professionals in architectural design relating to designing for predominantly landscape contexts

B. Informed wider society of the critical debate surrounding appropriate architectural designs for rural contexts

C. Established benchmark references for guiding planning and design judgements for sensitive rural locations

D. Transcribed this rural design research into the broader debate about architecture in the rural and urban built environment.

Summary of the impact

CHAPMAN's research into emotionally durable design has radically shifted the values and practices of global businesses, helping them to cut waste and to enhance product, material and brand value. Through publications, exhibitions, master-classes and films, this research has transformed understanding of sustainable design in professional (Puma, Sony), policy (House of Lords, UN) and cultural (Design Museum, New Scientist) settings, propelling the field beyond its focus on energy and materials, towards deeper engagements that link psychosocial phenomena with ideas about consumption and waste. Furthermore, it has contributed to public debate and policy with the effect that the term `emotional durability' has now entered the international design lexicon, providing valuable shorthand for complex phenomena influencing product longevity.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

Between 1992 and 2002, Loughborough University invented an award-winning approach to planning complex, highly interdependent development projects. Since 2008 the Analytical Design Planning Technique (ADePT) method has resulted in:

1. A sustainable spin-out business (Adept Management Ltd) employing 10 staff with a £6.2 million turnover, providing ADePT services to the majority of the UK's top construction contractors — the business is run by four ex-researchers who were integral to the development of ADePT at Loughborough University;
2. Formation of an Adept Management Ltd technology arm in 2008 providing a state-of-the-art commercial design planning software package incorporating enhancements to the method;
3. Establishment of a US office in 2009 and growth in the number of international clients in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Africa; and as a result
4. Application on projects valuing £11 billion since 2008, with higher levels of cost and time certainty, fewer delays and less waste due to improved design management.