A group of QUT design, health and business students recently worked with the Wat Duang Khae community in Thailand to improve community health and wellbeing before presenting their ideas at Bangkok Design Week.
The 33 students travelled to Bangkok for a two-week New Colombo Plan Scholarship program on ‘Design for Change: The Future of Wellbeing.’
Led by Professor Lisa Scharoun, QUT Head of School, School of Design, Dr Naputsamohn Junpiban, QUT alumnus and lecturer of Experience Design at Chulalongkorn University, Dr Leo Rezayan, QUT School of Design, and Dr Colette Roos, QUT School of Psychology and Counselling, the trip was the first faculty-led, multi-faculty short-term mobility program out of QUT to include students from the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, the Faculty of Health and Faculty of Business and Law.
Professor Scharoun said the group attended an International Design for Change Symposium 2025: The Future of Wellbeing by Design held at Chulalongkorn University on February 5. Sponsored by Thailand’s National Innovation Agency and opened by the Assistant Vice President Art and Culture at Chulalongkorn University, Dr Vitchatalum Laovanich, the symposium featured 15 speakers discussing wellbeing and design practices in Thailand and Australia.
Drawn from the study areas of design, nursing, entrepreneurship, psychology and counselling, the students also participated in a design challenge with students from the Chulalongkorn University Department of Creative Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Faculty of Psychology and Faculty of Nursing.
“Our students were given a design challenge to work with the Wat Duang Khae slum community to improve community health and wellbeing,” Professor Scharoun said.
“To do so, they collaborated with 10 industry partners including LINE (Thailand), Fashion Revolution (Thailand), Living Association, JitArsa Bank, Baojai Family Peaceful Death, Centre for Elderly Health and Wellbeing (Chulalongkorn University), Green2Get, Sati Space and MedPark Hospital.
“Over three days, the students worked with community members and religious leaders to create viable solutions to waste management, death preparedness and awareness, financial stability in the aged population, improving green spaces for children and supporting better communication between children and their parents.”
Professor Scharoun said the experience culminated in a pitch to community and industry partners at Chulalongkorn University and an exhibition of posters of their final work as part of the Bangkok Design Week program at Samyan Mitrtown.
“Bangkok Design Week is a global festival with over 400,000 people visiting annually from around the globe, so this was an extraordinary, real-world learning experience for our students,” she said.
Their efforts were also recognised by Proud Patanavanich, Associate Chief Administrative Officer of Service Design at MedPark Hospital.
“It is super impressive how everyone had only 3 days for the design sprint but teams were able to come up with solutions, designs, even prototypes to solve some of the most difficult challenges of a low income community,” said Ms Patanavanich.
“This program makes me very happy for the future of design. We are so proud to be a part of this. Who says design is about aesthetics? Design is about how things work and problem solving.”
The QUT students on the tour were:
Main image: QUT design, health and business students in Bangkok on a two-week New Colombo Plan Scholarship program on ‘Design for Change: The Future of Wellbeing.’
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Amanda Weaver
QUT Media
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