Tomasz Jaśkiewicz has been connected with the Centre for BOLD Cities in various ways over the years, engaging in both education and research. Read the interview below to learn more about Tomasz's academic background and research interests.
Can you tell me more about your academic background and expertise?
I was trained as an architect and urban planner. During my PhD research at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft, I researched methods for designing interactive buildings—structures that can change and adapt over time in response to the actions of their inhabitants. This research was very technology-driven. Although the complex interactive prototypes I built worked technically and I was excited about the vision of creating buildings that "live" and “grow” as part of the city in symbiosis with its citizens, people perceived them as curious "art" pieces rather than something practical that they could actually use. I realized I needed to understand better why this was the case. After my PhD, I transitioned to the assistant professor position at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering. My goal was to learn more about human-centered design and co-creation, combine it with my prototyping skills, and apply it in the context of urban grassroot projects. Ten years later, I call this combination “civic prototyping”. It has grown to be my area of expertise and it remains my ongoing research focus.
For the past three years, I have been a professor (lector) at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Additionally, I am still involved part-time at TU Delft as a design fellow. At both institutions, I research and teach methods for exploratory, hands-on innovation, which when applied to empowerment of local communities I like to describe using Carl DiSalvo’s term as a form of "democracy in the small."
How did you become involved with the Centre for BOLD Cities?
A lot of my work focuses on finding better ways to engage citizens in shaping "smart" cities, which aligns well with the scope of the Centre. I had been collaborating with various people involved in BOLD Cities for a long time before Liesbet van Zoonen, the Centre’s academic director, contacted me last summer about coordinating a module on civic engagement for the Smart and SHARED Cities minor. I couldn't say "no".
I enjoyed teaching in the minor immensely. We filled our module with field trips, visiting inspiring places where we could directly engage with local communities and professionals involved in grassroots initiatives aimed at transforming the city around them. We then leveraged academic literature to critically reflect on our experiences. It was intense for both the students and teachers, but as we reflected on it after the module ended, we all found it very rewarding to combine theory with hands-on experiences.
Why do you think an interdisciplinary approach is important?
Claiming to work in an interdisciplinary way is easy, but organizing interdisciplinary processes is very challenging. People from different professional backgrounds often struggle to understand each other because they do not speak the same professional language or have different systemic perspectives based on their expertise or the organizations they represent. In the context of cities, this can lead to many frictions blocking constructive collaboration, overlooked issues and forgotten values. In the emerging field of "systemic design," we are developing tools and methods to creatively address such complexities. I am proud to be part of the "Expertise Network Systemic Co-Design" that’s a wonderful community of experts collaborating on this in the Netherlands.
However, the rapid development of AI complicates things further. In smart city systems AI is already being used to analyze data, make simulations, inform policy, and assist citizens in operating within the city - both physically and digitally. On all these layers we are dealing with technologies that nobody fully comprehends anymore. Therefore, I believe that a multi-disciplinary approach is no longer sufficient. Established disciplines do not contain all the knowledge needed to consciously shape, overlook and contest such systems. We need new forms of cross-disciplinary expertise for that. Minors like the Smart and SHARED Cities are excellent ways to tackle this problem. We train future professionals that already have a strong core expertise in one domain to acquire expertise from other areas so that they can work on the fringes and overlaps of multiple disciplines.
On all these layers we are dealing with technologies that nobody fully comprehends anymore. Therefore, I believe that a multi-disciplinary approach is no longer sufficient. Established disciplines do not contain all the knowledge needed to consciously shape, overlook and contest such systems. We need new forms of cross-disciplinary expertise for that.
What impact do you hope to achieve with your work?
I hope to help students understand the complexity of the contexts they operate in and to navigate them while also recognizing their own limitations. I want them to remain critical, persistently challenge their own assumptions, and never settle for easy solutions, or to even accept that every “solution” they come up will, is most likely going to create ten more problems. Most importantly though, I encourage them to look for and address the root causes of problems they encounter rather than just the symptoms.
Do you have a book, podcast, or film that inspires you and that you would like to share with us?
Professionally, I highly recommend "Design as Democratic Inquiry" by Carl DiSalvo that I already mentioned. It is an excellent book that positions design as a tool for fostering public engagement and democratic participation by encouraging dialogue, reflection, and collaborative problem-solving.
Carl Disalvo. Design as Democratic Inquiry: Putting Experimental Civics into Practice. 2022. EAN: 9780262368957
On a lighter note, I can also recommend the Apple TV series "Extrapolations." This show provides a compelling glimpse into the future, highlighting the fragile balance between technological developments, climate change repercussions, and societal transformations. By exploring these future scenarios, the series makes us think from a more holistic perspective about the current challenges. While the plot and acting may not always be solid, the series excels in provoking critical thinking about present-day design challenges.