We Won an Award!
Studio Notes | What We’ve Been Up To
Context Studio were delighted to take home the studio’s first IDI award recently for our project “Sustainable Energy Communities: From Plan To Do” funded by Creative Ireland.
‘From Plan To Do’ has engaged Sustainable Energy Communities nationally using a service design approach, to deeply understand challenges to their work, and to co-design and prototype actions towards a low-carbon future. “From Plan to Do” demonstrated that taking a service design approach can effectively support SECs in transitioning from the planning phase to impactful, community-led action.
By utilising research, co-design, meaningful community engagement, and prototyping, the project equipped SECs with practical tools and sustainable strategies that promote inclusivity, participation, and long-term success. The project received the IDI Irish Design Award for Service & Strategic Design in November 2024.
We recently delivered the project outcomes and held a successful SEC event to share our learnings and foster connection among SEC’s. The “From Plan To Do” project set out to prove that service design could effectively help Sustainable Energy Communities (SECs) transition from planning into tangible action. The project’s structured approach—rooted in discovery research, co-design, and prototyping—demonstrated significant results in helping SECs build and implement creative projects.
During the project, the work came to the attention of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, to whom all partners are grateful for the insight shared and support offered. As the urgency of Ireland’s climate challenge increases, and as public administration turns to design as a transformation process, we believe this project shows how service design can be applied in complex contexts, to create both tangible outputs and intangible value.
