Research Fellow
Tel: +44 (0)20 7590 4209
E-mail: yan-ki.lee@rca.ac.uk
Yanki Lee is a designer with international design experience, Yanki focuses on social innovation through design and user research methodologies. She graduated in 2000 with an MA in Architecture from the Royal College of Art and was awarded a PhD in design from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2007. Her thesis, entitled, 'Design Participation Tactics; involving people in the design of their built environment' explored a range of methodologies for design participation.
Yanki was as a Helen Hamlyn Research Associate in 2001, studying the future of live-work buildings in collaboration with the Peabody Trust. She was awarded a research studentship for her doctoral research in which she built up her expertise in design participation.
Her doctural research included action-research projects and case studies in China, Hong Kong and the UK and was conducted in partnership with some international organisations including Tsinghua University, Beijing; Civic Exchange, governmental organisations, Hong Kong; Interactive Institute, Sweden and the Architecture Foundation in the UK.
Yanki has experience in designing and curating exhibitions and founded a community-interest gallery in London that explores new and creative forms of community art and design and also exhibits social projects.
Yanki’s research interest focuses on inclusive design methodologies and their application in the built environment and community development. She works closely with the Royal College of Art design community and external design associations to explore and develop new design participation methodologies. Her research focuses on the implications for inclusive design in different disciplines and cultures and favours the practical application over the purely theoretical.
Yanki's work also focuses on exploring tactics for public engagement in design and creative practice. For example, In 2007, Yanki initiated the programme ‘Designing across Boundaries’ with Paula Dib, Brazilian winner of British Council's International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year (IYDEY) award 2006. Its central aim is to encourage designers to make full sustainable (environmental, economic and social) exchange between design and local knowledge through innovative and inclusive processes. Its first experimental project was the 60 Hour design Challenge - with Brazilian and UK designer/students working with teenagers at Villiers High School in Southall, London.
In Summer 2009 Yanki was invited by the Hong Kong Design Centre to be programme director for the 'Discover Design' workshop for 120 teenagers to explore social inclusion and creativity through design.
Yanki is leading the student programme at the RCA and is a judge for student award schemes. She is also a judge for the RSA Inclusive Worlds student awards and the D&AD environmental design award. She recently became a member of the Higher Education Academy where she explores pedagogy theories in inclusive design practice. One of these is the Methods Lab at the RCA. It is a creative design workshop for the RCA design community and external associates that explores designing inclusively and collectively.
Yanki is also a co-investigator of the i~design 3 project which is funded by the EPSRC. This four-year research project (2006-2010) seeks to deliver tools that enable designers to design products, systems, services and environment that can be used effectively by the whole population, including those who are older or disabled. The team includes academic and sector partners including the University of Cambridge and the Design Council. Yanki's primary role is to develop and extend active learning through more effective inclusive design. She is working on a new web tool:www.designingwithpeople.org that aims to to help designers in all disciplines to design more successfully with people.
Yanki curated an exhibition at the RCA, Constant Stream, in response to an invitation to the RCA to participate in the CHINA NOW festival (Feb-Aug 2008) of cultural events in the UK marking the run-up to Beijing Olympics in Summer 2008. Yanki used the opportunity to stimulate a dialogue not just between China and other cultures but also between creative disciplines. After its success in London in May 2008, with funding from the RCA and external sponsors including the British Council, the exhibition travelled to cities including Hasselt (Belgium) and Hong Kong. The final destination of the discussion provoked from the exhibition concluded at the Today Art Museum in Beijing in August 2009.
