Lezingen nieuwe Medical Delta hoogleraren Judith Rietjens en Machiel van Dorst

We are pleased to announce invited lectures by the newly appointed Medical Delta professors affiliated with GMN at the Institute of Psychology: prof.dr. Judith Rietjens and prof.dr.ir. Machiel van Dorst.

Both lectures come highly recommended of course and are open to all those interested, including staff and students.

Lecture 1: Design for Care Transitions

During this presentation, Prof. Judith Rietjens will describe what design and design research is, and will give examples of how it can be leveraged in healthcare, with applications in public health, oncology and mental health.

The presentation will touch upon core design principles such as human-centeredness, system approaches, iterative ways of working, and future thinking. Illustrations of specific projects and design methods, such as journey mapping, system mapping, and speculative design will be given. Also, an introduction to the newly founded Care Transitions Lab, that she co-chairs, will be given.
 
Prof. Judith Rietjens is a Medical Delta Professor of 'Design for Public Health' at the Delft University of Technology (faculty of Industrial Design), Erasmus MC (department of Public Health), and Leiden University (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences). She integrates and combines methodologies and best practices from public health, design research and the social sciences to optimize person centered care while taking into account healthcare system complexities. Her work is highly transdisciplinary, and she enjoys collaborating with patients, families, and public partners.

Lecture 2: The Impact of Physical Space on Our Well-being

There are many misunderstandings about the relationship between the built environment and behaviour. Urban planning has a tradition of physical determinism: the assumption that we can shape behaviour through the design of buildings, public space, and traffic infrastructure.

The concept of affordance has replaced this idea. In this model, it is assumed that the built environment can either facilitate or hinder behaviour, with the understanding that not everyone interprets the environment in the same way. As a designer, you create interventions that are as unambiguous as possible for a diverse audience, while recognising that the social and cultural context, as well as individual characteristics, help determine the success of a design. To do this well, cross-fertilisation between the social sciences and spatial design is essential.
 
Machiel van Dorst is a full professor of Environmental Behaviour & Design at the Department of Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft. His research field is at the crossroads of environmental psychology and urban design, including topics such as liveability, sustainability & behaviour, territorial behaviour, design & research methodology, design education, sustainable urbanism, and health & the built environment. Machiel is Medical Delta Professor, Healthy Society and Scientific director of the Resilient Delta Initiative, a Convergence project with the EUR and EMC in Rotterdam.