RECOGNITION 2016
With this project, I got to present the design process at the IPN 2016 (The international education business Partnership Network), in Oslo.
1 ABOUT
Across languages
Asylum applicants arrive in new countries with new traditions, cultures, and customs. It is important to create a space where people from different cultural backgrounds can feel a connection to home and at the same time, encourage integration.
We took the opportunity of using the abilities that preparing and eating food has when it comes to bringing people together. By using fire, we took its ability to attract people, creating an invitation for people to join.
As a part of the course Product Aesthetics and Cultural Understanding, this project was formed by two co-students and I.
Early on in the project, we defined what `home ́ was for us and saw that food was the subject that repeatedly came into the topic. We believed that the notion of Home can be defined not only by the physical place but also by our state of mind.
KEYWORDS
Product Design
Ethnographic Research
Workshop
Interview
CLIENT
Oslo and Akershus University of Applied Science
Holmestrand center
DATE
2016
3.2 COOKING WORKSHOP
Despite not have a common language, the activities of preparing and eating food together, where hand gestures, motions, pointing at the different ingredients and utensils, became the main source of communication.
By bringing different ingredients for cooking and kitchen utensils made of different materials, we wanted to observe what kitchen utensils were used to prepare the different ingredients. Baking bread was repeatedly seen at the transit- and asylum centeres that we visited.
3.6 SECOND TESTING
After confirming the flaws and strengths of the concept during the first testing, we created a more expensive prototype and corrected the flaws. The second testing confirmed we were functionally, on the right way.
3.4 IDEATION
By analysing the ethnographic research, we defined pain-points, insights and opportunities. The opportunities were explored through sketching and experimentation of color, material and shape.
Sketching
OPPORTUNITIES:
TRADITIONAL BREAD BAKING-
create a possible way to bake bread.
OPEN FLAME GRILL-
Creating a variety of ways to prepare food, and a natural inviting quality.
INCLUDING SHAPE-
The round table is a cultural object, but also a very including shape for interaction.
3.5 FIRST TESTING
After coming up with the initial idea of how the grill could function, we had to test it by creating a raw, inexpensive prototype.
2 RESULT
Massi is is developed so to enhance the fires power of attracting people, as every culture has an understanding and connection to what fire is and does. With inspiration from different parts of the world we combined ornamentation, materials, forms and shapes and created a multicultural grill.
3 DESIGN PROCESS
Ethnographic research was crucial for us to identify problems and opportunities.
By only reading about different cultures and traditions, we will not necessary see what’s described in books out on field, especially if the cultural or traditional norms are placed in an unfamiliar setting.
We can never be in a neutral cultural standpoint, as our interpretation of the world is based on our own cultural background.
3.3 SYMBOLS AND MATERIAL WORKSHOP
Co-designing a workshop
At the symbols-and material workshop, we had half of the residents at one of the centers co-design a workshop related to symbols and cooking. While the other half of the residents co-designed a workshop related to materials and cooking. After finishing the activities, the groups swapped places and had to fill out each other's workshop by placing post-its on the symbol or material that they believed was related to the cooking image the most. As seen in the image to the right, a resident is filling out the symbols workshop by placing a post-it on the symbol that the resident believed related to the cooking picture
3.7 THIRD TESTING
As a third testing, we created an event outside one of Oslos Transit centers. We invited people, including the ones we have cooked and eaten together with during this project, to test our grill and observed how people interacted with both the grill and each other.
3.1 MAPPING THE ASYLUM APPLICATION PROCESS
By mapping the asylum application process, we got to understand the applicant's journey in the new country before getting asylum and where the applicant either was provided with food or could prepare food. This way we could find out where we could get in contact with the applicants, so to have workshops.
4 FINAL DESIGN
The final design consisted of an including shape, an open flame to invite people, a cast-iron dome to include bread baking and, materials, patterns, and colors based on the outcomes from the co-designed workshops.
Massi is designed to invite people to cook food in different traditional ways
Color and material experimentation