Think Like A Designer : Mind-opening Design Thinking Workshop for Students to Explore Materials
Since early civilization, human beings have been utilising natural materials to create tools that have made our life easy and eventually constituted our living environment today. Isn't it wonderful that millions of products with different forms and uses evolved from just a few common natural materials? Without creativity and a mind for innovation, the objects we create would not be as effective and useful.
In the workshop “Materials Inspired by Nature” co-organised by Institute for Design Knowledge and Design Spectrum, the brand new public-facing programme by Hong Kong Design Centre, students from 4 secondary schools explored the unlimited possibilities of materials. The workshop was an extended activity of the debut exhibition “Material Modernity: Incredible Bamboo, Paper & Wood”, and is the first of a coming series aiming to explore and rediscover the connections between design, creativity and innovation. The students were first introduced to some phenomenal uses of these three materials in a lecture, and later toured around the gallery to see the awe-inspiring Asian design exhibits.
They learned about the versatility of these three materials and what can be made of them.
| Examples | Wood | Bamboo | Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| architecture furniture cutting board sculpture chopsticks |
scaffolding basket water pipe |
origami craft paper cup building material |
Often, these objects are created by some common approaches such as:
| Examples | Weaving | Layering | Folding |
|---|---|---|---|
| rattan baskets textiles |
plywood roof shingles |
traditional fold screens paper lantern |
Creative Problem-solving: First Encounter with Design Thinking
After getting some inspiration from the brisk lecture and guided tour, the students split into groups and embarked on a one-hour design challenge to co-create a new material based on a random design brief.
Design Challenge
Using at least two of the three materials (paper, bamboo and wood), create one of the following objects:
(1) a modular structure that can be extended to 3 times long
(2) a free-standing 1.5m structure
(3) a structure that can adjust the light passing through it
Considerations: functionality, cultural meanings, aesthetics
In the process, the students have considered the properties and the crafting techniques of the materials. They diverged their thoughts and generated new ideas through dialogues.
“Which of the three materials can allow light to pass through?”
“Paper.”
“And how about weaved bamboo sticks with gaps in between?”
“You are right. But how do we adjust the amount of light passing through?”
“Through layering or random weaving. Or maybe by adjusting the orientation.”
The two groups that were working on the adjustable lighting showed different but similarly enchanting approaches. One group was inspired by bird nests. The lamp shade was created by winding strings randomly around a bamboo structure. The irregular density of the strings allow people to adjust the light passing through by changing orientation. Orange and yellow paper leaves are also added to cover part of the structure, bringing in an Autumn-ish emotional warmth. The structure can even be considered as a miniature model of an actual pavilion, where people inside can sit at different positions depending on how much sunlight they would like to be exposed to. This is a perfect example of how the students cross-linked and expanded ideas - from lamp shade to a pavilion.
Another group assembled a flower shaped lighting fixture. When the paper flower petals are wide open, more light can shine through. Light will be dampened when the petals roll close. The students drew inspiration from a diverging spider web and an invertebrate with repetitive body segments.
The students presented their prototypes and explained the inspirations and techniques involved in creating the required features. In the process, they have learned to articulate their concept in a logical way and trace back their design rationale.
The design thinking workshop shows that through group ideation and prototyping, people can exploit the diverse properties of the same materials and create totally different objects that are serving similar or unique purposes. Design thinking is a way to help you find new perspectives and unleash the greatest potential from the resources at hand.
Participating Schools:
Yan Oi Tong Tin Ka Ping Secondary School.
Rhenish Church Pang Hok Ko Memorial College
St. Paul's Convent School
Tang Shiu Kin Victoria Government Secondary School