Sixteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Cultural heritage is a big part of human life, and so is design. How does design integrate with heritage and culture to foster innovative ideas? By reimagining heritage and culture, this paper explores and integrates traditional arts and crafts with design processes to develop innovative artistic prototypes. The design narrative has experimented in two intersecting and iterative stages. In the first stage of the ideas generation, the artefacts, materials, equipment and making processes of traditional Singapore artisans were documented and analysed. In the second stage of ideas interpretation, the findings were explored, reimagined, and interpreted as relevant designs for the public. The question raised during the process was: “What’s next in the field of traditional crafts and design?” The design narrative demonstrated that creativity and innovation could be derived from the deep roots of local cultural heritage and handicrafts. Its influence can be embodied in many aspects of the creative concept: the traditional and the modern aesthetic sense of sharing communion; the form of expression, of both abstract and figurative; and in techniques and materials, the use of multiple applications and comprehensive co-exist. All these greatly expanded the thinking and performance of design and provided promising conditions for the development of design as cultural artefacts.