AIA Life Designers is a French engineering and architecture group founded in 1965. Today, they are a tightly knit group of architects, engineers, economists, urban planners, landscapers and site supervisors. As part of their aim to reflect upon the future of our cities, they constituted a specific working group on research & educational buildings. On this occasion, the AIA Research & Education working group met a group of Design students from the Sustainable citie's master cycle from L'Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique in order to reflect upon the future of learning spaces. But there is a twist to the thinking process, all the ideas, no matter what, had to be prototyped quickly!!

The particularity of this workshop is its focus on Prototyping as a mean for challenging and pushing the innovation process. As part of their ongoing work, the AIA Research & Education working group had already identified some key ideas around the future of learning spaces that they wanted to push further. It seemed a great opportunity to experience the power of quick and rough prototyping as a method for testing and generating ideas.

The workshop was conceived and facilitated by Design students. Four mixed teams were formed with two or three AIA R&E members with backgrounds in architecture, engineering or management and two design students. The tools put in place by the facilitators are part of the AYCH ToolBox. Throughout the workshop, a researcher observed and noted the different interactions and reactions to the tools as well as the creative outcomes of the process.

Duration: One day from 10 am to 5 pm.

• 1. Presentation of AYCH project & the aims of the workshop
• 2. Presentation of the workshop's themes and the work in progress by AIA Research & Development group
• 3. Teams formation: 4 of 2 AIA members & 2 Students
• 4. Idea Wall
• 5. User scénario
• 6. Quick prototyping round I
• 7. Quick prototyping round II
• 8. Test by students
• 9. Feedback & Conclusions

The Idea Wall is a powerful exercise that allows groups to easily share, visualise and make sense of different issues and ideas around a particular subject. It is a very flexible tool that can be adapted depending on the subject, the participants and the kind of project they are working on. For more details on how it works idea wall (english)

On this occasion, each team built an Idea Wall where they collected a series of main values and ideas associated with their particular working theme, many of these ideas and values were represented by images. The idea wall evolved and got richer as the team's work progressed during the day. After some exchanges, each group had to agree on one particular idea or concept they would have to develop next.

Once each group chose the idea or concept they wanted to develop, each group had to produce a user scenario. This tool challenges the participants to think about how a potential user would interact with their idea or concept. It focuses the exchanges among the participants around the user's experiences and needs regarding their concept. For more information on User Scenario

After developing a user scenario, each group had to agree on what element of their idea or concept they would prototype keeping in mind that the prototype would be tested later on by real students.

What aspect or dimension of your concept would you like to prototype? Something in your user scenario you would like to test through prototyping? Something you are not sure about and you would like to better understand? What would be the best way to prototype Démystifier cette notion de prototype… Tester, montrer tout le concept ou peut-être juste une dimension du concept. Pas fini, pas Quick & Dirty Sortir du dessin Choisir le bon prototype Dans le scénario d’usage, qu’est-ce que vous souhaiterez questionner ? montrer ?

Challenge : définir quel aspect du concept prototyper et comment ? Ce n’est pas trop prématuré en sachant qu’il y a des éléments sur le papier qui ne sont pas résolus ? Reflex de dessiner avec des détails spatiaux

Quelle stratégie de prototypage ?

The Idea Wall allowed the participants to understand each other's vision on the subject,

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