Designing Across the Boundary: Translation Work in a Resource-Constrained Public Institution

Abstract

This paper examines two moments of translation work in a thesis with an Research through Design (RtD) approach that produced a consultancy model grounded in Product-Service System (PSS) Design for Sustainability suitable for integration into the Ventanillas Regionales de Negocios Verdes (VNVs) services, a Colombian green-business regional program. The first moment converted an academic reference framework, developed and deployed by LeNSlab Politecnico di Milano, into a localized, board-format artefact. The second moment considered the difficulties of participatory validation that the board-format artefact application endured in execution, undergoing an adaption, in mid-study, into a conversation-centered format. Drawing on  account of translation work in participatory design, alongside scholarship on participatory design in resource-constrained Latin American contexts and pluriversal design's critique of design frameworks spread as universal, these two moments are understood as empirical instances of how systemic intervention frameworks are translated into situated public-sector practice. This paper supports that translation work in such contexts moves across different domains, and adaptations made to a reference framework reappear in design practices and processes, further accelerated by stakeholders engaging with the artifacts. Eventually, it closes by discussing designers’ accountability as mediators in emerging contexts, and open-ended remaining of a pilot-ready model that the underlying thesis proposes as next steps of experimentation.