Ragne Mathiesen

Gender equality in the Municipality of Karmøy

A research and design project developed at AHO in collaboration with Karmøy municipality and the Drivhuset pilot project. Working in a team of 11 designers, I contributed to user research, workshops with youth, concept development, and editorial design.

The project resulted in a printed playbook with 19 ideas for the municipality, and won the AHO Award for Best Use of Strategic Design.





The project started with two weeks of research, followed by a week of fieldwork in Karmøy with local youth. We set up a small design studio called Drivhuset in a rented room at the centre of Karmøy, where we invited teenagers to take part in the process. We also interviewed local organisations, observed existing youth spaces, and ran co-creation sessions with young people from the area.









Co-creating with teens and girls in Karmøy was integral to our project, focusing on crafting a more equal and culturally enriched community. Recognizing the potential pitfalls of imposing external perspectives, particularly from Oslo to the smaller city of Karmøy, we prioritized collaboration and co-design. This approach ensured that solutions and strategies were shaped by the local community, respecting their unique context and contributing to a genuine and sustainable transformation.





The resulting playbook, filled with ideas, serves as a starting point for fostering a more gender-equal culture and has been shared with local politicians, decision-makers, and architects in Karmøy.







Explore some of our ideas from the playbook: