Design Research
How can we use design to help the youth in Tøyen in building supportive networks that guide them in accessing opportunities and resources?
Youth Station: Bridging the Gap & Enhancing Resources Accessibility for the Youth of Tøyen
Project scope: Design Reseach | 10 weeks
Background Context:
In Tøyen, 65% of children grow up in low-income households (NHH Bulletin, NHH Norges Handelshøyskole), making it one of Oslo’s most challenged neighbourhoods. Predictive determinants from data from Bydelsfakta for Nedre Tøyen show concentrated living condition challenges, where socioeconomic constraints, housing pressure, and population dynamics intersect, which also aligns with the Oslo Sustainability Report that suggests growing up in low-income households can negatively affect young people’s health, participation in society, access to opportunities, and experiences of exclusion. This highlights the importance of accessible public spaces and support in everyday life and development for children and youth in the area.
Aligned with Sustainable Development Goals, the Oslo City Council emphasises early interventions that support young people to promote social equity through skill development and creativity for future employment. However, despite the presence of third spaces, workshops and training programs in and around Tøyen, engagement among young people aged 16 - 19 remains limited. This study focuses this age group as they navigate key life transitions during the videregående school phase, including decisions related to education and career path.
RQ1: Why does engagement remain limited among youth aged 16 - 19 in third spaces in Tøyen, despite their intended role in supporting skill development and social participation?
RQ2: How do socioeconomic challenges shape young people’s everyday lives in Tøyen and how do these conditions influence their engagement with such spaces?
For this project, I partnered with Deichman Tøyen to understand and serve Tøyen youth, as:
-
Deichman Tøyen's agenda aligned with Oslo's sustainability goals and Bydel Gamle Oslo's efforts to reduce exclusion among young people.
-
Shared motivation: Support Tøyen's youth through educational opportunities to enhance job prospects and living conditions.
-
Leverage Deichman's role as a valued 'third space' for young people
The partnership aimed to utilize Deichman Tøyen's resources and network to create impactful interventions for young people in the area.
Problem Identification
Qualitative research, including phenomenological and ethnographic methods, was conducted to understand the limitations in engagement among young people aged 16 -19 in Tøyen. Secondary research highlights stakeholder perspectives, as a lack of interest among young people poses challenges to sustaining youth engagement, despite their ongoing efforts to improve access to resources and opportunities, as confirmed by an expert at Deichman Tøyen, a key collaborator in this thesis. Therefore, to gain a perspective on young people and investigate the challenge further, a self-led primary research project was conducted, including in-depth interviews with experts, youth, and youth volunteers; ethnographic observations; and a focused questionnaire study involving adults reflecting on their youth experiences.
The findings revealed three key barriers to engagement:
1. Young people showed high engagement at the Central Park café (located near Deichman Tøyen). Peer influence in these spaces encouraged motivation and participation, and they showed greater interest in low-threshold, inclusive activities such as movie screenings.
2. Organisations often focus on generic, repetitive programs and workshops for the young people, creating the perception that participants’ feedback is neither acknowledged nor integrated, ultimately leading to negative experiences.
3. Many young people in this demographic also need to balance their studies with part-time work to support their families, which limits time for personal development.
Analysis revealed that the limited coordination and poor information flow within organisations lead to negative youth experiences and skepticism, especially when previous initiatives have failed to deliver tangible value. In contrast, strong youth engagement at events like the Interkulturelt Museum on youth prejudice and crime, and budget-cut discussions at the Munch Museum, demonstrates that young people are most engaged when topics are directly relevant to their lives. This suggests that youth disengagement is less about a lack of interest and more about a disconnect between the design of support programs and youth perceptions of value, relevance, and trust. Institutional assumptions often overlook the lived realities of marginalised youth, while meaningful engagement happens when youth feel their perspectives are recognised and connected to real-world concerns.
The findings, therefore, underscore the need for flexible, youth-centred support structures aligned with young people’s lived realities that help them access relevant resources and opportunities. Thematic analysis also identified key themes related to accessibility, coordination among institutions, and participatory engagement that influence youth engagement.
A detailed explanation of the qualitative research methods applied in the project is explained below:
Design Question & Proposition
DQ: How might we design a coordinated service ecosystem that enables youth to access relevant, low-threshold opportunities aligned with their lived realities?
Therefore, this thesis proposes ‘Youth Station’ as a coordinated, flexible, and youth-centred service design framework that helps young people aged 16 - 19 access relevant opportunities, guidance, and support. At the organisational level, ‘Youth Station’ functions as an integrated support network connecting youth-led initiatives, community organisations, and public services to address the specific challenges and aspirations of young people in Tøyen. It serves as a coordinated “bridge”, leveraging public library networks to create accessible entry points, structured pathways, and tailored support for youth. The end-to-end service design includes low-threshold engagement activities (such as inspirational movie screenings) that encourage young people to open up, reflect on their aspirations, and articulate their needs. Peer-based environments and expert facilitators further facilitate dialogue and knowledge exchange about available resources and opportunities, and help guide young people toward relevant services.
Through coordinated collaboration between organisations, Youth Station strengthens collective learning and creates responsive, feedback-driven service ecosystems for youth and organisations.
Theoretical Grounding
Research on Emerging Adulthood as a Critical Stage in the Life Course suggests that young people transitioning into adulthood rely on personal, family, and social support systems, where limited institutional support can increase dependence on individual resources, often affecting educational, career, and health outcomes. Positive Youth Development (PYD) approaches emphasise strengthening personal assets, self-efficacy, and support networks to empower young people to pursue meaningful goals and improve long-term wellbeing.
These theoretical perspectives helped define the design principles underpinning the service design framework, particularly accessibility, coordination, and participatory engagement, while emphasising support networks that provide forms of familial and social support, encourage youth to recognise their strengths and personal assets, and strengthen self-efficacy within responsive service ecosystems.
Service Concept
Youth Station supports young people in exploring their interests, voicing their concerns, and accessing support through structured pathways in phases:
Phase 1 - Outreach through low-threshold engagement: Movie screening as an accessible entry point to inspire and initiate youth engagement.
Phase 2 - Exploration and aspiration-building: Post-screening workshops to encourage youth to reflect on interests, aspirations, and possibilities.
Phase 3 - Self-reflection and need identification: Guided checklist to help youth identify and articulate personal challenges and needs at their own pace.
Phase 4 - Dialogue and connection: Facilitated sessions connect youth with peers, experts, and relevant organisations, exchange ideas and concerns that can guide them to access resources and support pathways.
System Role & Impact
By the end of this journey, Youth Station will function as a central coordination point, connecting young people with relevant support organisations to create a scalable, interconnected support system that builds on existing resources and opportunities. By leveraging public library networks, it operates as an “invisible” collaborative infrastructure that links smaller organisations through feedback-oriented coordination (Fig. 1), improving access to relevant resources.
Beyond user-level engagement, the framework embeds participatory processes that strengthen institutional collaboration and integrate youth perspectives into service delivery. This service design ecosystem can help establish communication between youth and local organisations to address gaps in access to resources and opportunities, while supporting sustainable participation and long-term wellbeing.
Validation and Stakeholder Feedback
During testing, stakeholders encouraged the potential of using movies as a low-threshold medium for youth engagement and their ability to inspire youth as a starting point for communication, and a stakeholder from Bydel Gamle Oslo, who works closely with Tøyen frivilligsentral expressed their interest in running the pilot of initiating youth engagement.
Risks & Mitigation
The identified risks reflect the structural challenges identified in the research and may continue to affect youth engagement within the proposed service framework. At the user level, risks include disengagement due to school, work, and family responsibilities, as well as perceptions that activities are irrelevant or patronising. Broader issues such as poor living conditions, stigma, and health challenges may further limit participation beyond the program’s scope and resources. System-level risks include organisational budget constraints that impact service continuity, partnerships, and long-term ecosystem stability. Inadequate user testing and behavioural validation of the self-reflection tool to articulate challenges and needs may lead to unintended negative effects, such as reduced self-esteem among youth. Together, these risks highlight the need for broad stakeholder involvement, robust resource structures, and ongoing systemic alignment to support a diverse group of young people aged 16 - 19 in Tøyen.
Mitigation strategies include piloting Youth Station to assess engagement and adapt activities, while preparing alternative formats if initial approaches, such as movie-based engagement, do not resonate. Youth involvement as consultants can support continuous, youth-informed feedback.Expanding stakeholder involvement beyond social workers and volunteers to include psychologists, health professionals, and external partners can strengthen service relevance and trust. Policy engagement may also be necessary to address structural barriers such as housing challenges, stigma, and environmental stressors affecting youth in Tøyen. In addition, Youth Station would require regular audits of partner organisations, reviewing their offerings, goals, and points of contact to maintain coordination within the support ecosystem. While the framework may initially serve a smaller group of youth, broader systemic alignment is necessary to reach the wider youth population and address socioeconomic barriers more effectively.
Keywords: Socioeconomic Barriers, Social Exclusion, Opportunity Gap, Youth Support Ecosystem, Youth Engagement
Project Reference: Youth Station: Resource Accessibility for Tøyen’s Youth – Student projects – The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). (2024). Www.aho.no. https://www.aho.no/english/student-projects/design/2024/youth-station/