Culture Based Design – Ghose & Benny Ding Leong Articles

Culture-Based Knowledge Towards New Design Thinking and Practice –

A Dialogue Benny Ding Leong in conversation with Hazel Clark

Benny Ding Leong brings a different approach to design as opposed to simply designing around modern understandings. He goes back to the roots of a product which came from within a culture and then builds his own fresh concepts from that. He makes it obvious throughout these conversations with Hazel Clark that he thinks that the majority of modern designers are too focused on smaller, rather un-inventive and meaningless designs. Throughout his studies in Europe, Leong encountered the return to focus of minimalism and functionality. He praises these experiences as having an impact on his attitude to design, but immediately states that because of these modern design themes, that a lot of culture is lost. In order for these cultural values to be preserved within modern product design, Leong identifies three areas of interest that must be observed.

1 “Value” in design-generated by the value systems of the given culture;

2 “Macro-relations”-a combination of the collective behaviour of users, the interaction of users and objects, and the interrelationship of users, objects, and environments; and

3 “Micro-relations”–of design interfaces or ergonomics among users, objects, and environments.

Later on in the dialogue the conversation turns towards using the local community and resources in order to produce projects. It is clear that Leong thinks this very important when attempting to create a ‘culturally correct’ as he is able to give western influence on the designs, but local knowledge & insight cannot be feigned.

Design, Development, Culture, and Cultural Legacies in Asia – Rajeshwari Ghose

The article starts out by identifying the problems that are/were encountered in Asian design, particularly in relation to the stagnant development around designing due to it not being taken seriously. He writes, “..it was only in the mid-1960s that design was recognised as one of the factors which could help exports.” When this was realised, design in many areas made huge headway into catching up globally. Ghose describes a ‘belt’ of countries consisting of Japan,South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore that all took part in the radical development incurred around this time. Curiously, China was excluded from this group potentially due to problems with standardisation in manufacturing or a lack of institutions which could provide adequate design education. With this shift to global markets and large increases in exports, an appeal through design was made for Westernised countries. This lead to a loss of cultural identity and a more unified approach to design.

Comparison

Ghose and Leong both raise some extremely relevant and insightful points of argument throughout their articles. Whilst recognising the importance of progression in design, Leong focuses on cultural based design and how to increase the influence that it has on modern designs. Ghose gives more information on Asian history of design and how the current manufacturing giants were created and why. He also explains how old cultural techniques could be brought into modern day product creation processes.