Building on the 2014 exhibition, students from the Industrial Design department at Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) showcase a series of projects that tackle familiar and not-so-familiar problems associated with life in China. Each project is underpinned by thorough research in the areas of user experience, technology, materials, and processes. Students have also informed their projects by talking to real people about problems and experiences in their lives where design could make a difference. Pictured above, for example, is a project by Guo Jia called Domestic Waste Disposal and Recycling.
Although recycling is widespread in China, the separation of domestic waste is still not widely practiced – the majority of waste being separated after collection. The designer tackled this problem by undertaking a ‘trash audit’ in family homes she visited as part of her research. This allowed her to understand the types of waste that are discarded in various parts of the house and to design smarter receptacles for these. Many of these are specific to Chinese households’ habits for cooking, cleaning and relaxing. After making contact with a local housing authority in Shanghai, the designer received funding to test her concepts on a large scale with 400 households.
Examples of other projects on display for BJDW 2015 include matchmaking solutions for those pressured into marriage; sleep management proposals for shift-workers; battery recharge and exchange proposals for China’s growing number of electric vehicles; and educational tools for volunteer teachers working in remote rural locations.
According to curator Ben Hughes, who is also Professor and Academic Head of the Department of Industrial Design at CAFA, these projects “stem from a deliberate strategy to focus students’ attention away from lifestyle products and towards problem solving within society at large. This allows for a more sophisticated and accessible research phase, whilst at the same time avoiding the pitfalls and clichés of poorly translated ‘heritage’ or ‘traditional’ design”.
Find out more about the exhibition via BJDW. Words and images provided by Ben Hughes; edited by Design China.
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