Our research explores design’s role in developing and revitalising culturally significant designs, products and practices. Although such designs, products and practices can be seen as out of step with contemporary society, they have rich historical links with communities and cultures and have much to offer for the future in terms of sustainability, cultural identity and wellbeing (Gould 2001). This paper draws upon research being conducted by the authors that employs design-led methods to determine if and how design can make a meaningful contribution to this revitalisation effort. In particular, we focus on cultural ecologies that are rooted to place, where culturally significant designs, products and practices emerge from place-based cultures. Our work is informed by three examples of place-based cultures. One such culture is found in Malvern, which is home to a cyber security cluster.. A high concentration of SMEs in the area enabled collaborative activities of making and designing of relevant products and services. This led to the development of a cultural ecology of contemporary, non-craft, cyber security enterprise, centralized in a specific location. Similarly, Morgan Motors, a family owned British motor manufacturer, have been producing in the same factory for more than 100 years, developing a local tradition of craftsmanship that transcends the community. Analysis of these examples foregrounds an in-depth case study of Santa Fe, where government policy, history, migration, heritage, culture, music, design, art, a festival and design identity all come together to form a unique place-based cultural ecology. Key informants for a series of semi-structured interviews profile both policy makers and craft makers from various fields of practice – e.g. weaving, carving, tinware, metalwork, pottery and so on – to draw out information relating to culturally significant product collections and making practices that emerge from this cultural ecology. From this, we identify two incommensurable factors and their interactions that exist within cultural ecologies: materiality (either craft or non-craft) and expertise/craftsmanship. These two factors may be quite contradictory. Understanding materiality may need a more objective/scientific approach that is descriptive and non-temporal. Craftsmanship or expertise, however, requires a more experiential approach to understand its meaning to culturally significant designs, products and practices, which is interpretive, experimental, value-based (thus, meaningful), and temporal. Given the differences between these two factors, and their potential incommensurability, different approaches may be needed to understand them. We conclude with an overview of how these cases are being used to inform our wider research – which aims to develop a framework for successful revitalisation through the application of design strategies to lead creation of cultural ecologies.

This paper presents the Located Making Framework to support small maker enterprises in China who employ craft making practices by helping ensure (a) they are fully utilising local support opportunities; (b) their decision-making aligns with the fundamental values driving the enterprise; (c) they align with principles of sustainability; and (d) design opportunities are identified. Using constructivist methods (observations, interviews etc.), primary data was collected in the Yellow River Valley region, coded and analysed, and values and context-relationships interpreted from results. This framework, adapted to the Chinese context, is the latest iteration of a model initially developed from our research in the USA and the UK. The Chinese findings are shown in specially developed graphic formats that are readily understandable and lend themselves to ease of use. Future work to increase the reach of the research includes development of an online interactive framework to automatically generate individual and cumulative results.

Beginning with historical and cultural studies ofthe materials, form, and manufacturing processes of three iconic chess set designs (Staunton, Bauhaus, and Balanis), this paper discusses the development of seven conceptual chess sets by undergraduate design students in Brazil. To encourage creative practice guided by sustainable principles, this design exercise focussed on hand skills and the use of local natural materials or reused (discarded) materials. Walker’s "progressive design praxis" was employed as a practical approach to design research, which combines thinking-and-doing to address the principle of "form follows meaning". Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exercise was developed online, with students working at home. Compared with the previous experience (2019) when students worked alongside each other in the studio, the elevated level of the design outcomes suggests that, despite the anxiety felt due to the pandemic, the tangible and intangible aspects of the artefacts were enhanced by students working in solitude.

Mainstream design approaches for developing more sustainable ways of living are often underpinned by the very modern values that have been instrumental in creating our unsustainable world. These values include those of consumerism, economic growth, efficiency, and technological optimism – exemplified by mainstream Triple Bottom Line approaches, including the popular Circular Economy concept. Mounting evidence of unsustainability, however, suggests that such approaches may not be sufficient to bring about the scale of change required. We present initial findings from an ongoing research project that examines what Design for Sustainability can learn from traditional products and practices in India that are not underpinned by modern values. We focused on one traditional product, the mortar and pestle, comparing it with a contemporary spice grinder. We offer five initial findings for developing contemporary products in a more comprehensive and holistic manner than is currently the case.

Dominant approaches to developing more sustainable ways of living are often underpinned by the modern values and knowledge that have been instrumental in creating our unsustainable world. Such approaches tend to emphasise reducing unsustainability via technological fixes rather than addressing sustainability more holistically. This paper argues that more traditional forms of knowledge (associated with deeper ecological, spiritual and ethical values) are important for addressing sustainability more holistically. To demonstrate this, we present and discuss a conceptual design for a contemporary toothbrush that incorporates traditional knowledge about tooth cleaning in rural India. This design demonstrates an interpretive, imaginative process that combines practical needs with enduring human values to modern sensibility.

Through active involvement in UNESCO’s ICH (Intangible Cultural Heritage) programme, China has developed its own framework to support traditional making practices. To examine the ‘characteristics’ of heritage crafts preservation in China, we undertook empirical research in the Yellow River basin. Our research involved in-depth observations and key informant interviews with a range of highly accomplished craftspeople who have inherited their particular expertise from their family and have been officially designated ICH Inheritors. Through our qualitative research with inheritors, a businessperson and a government official, we identified various support mechanisms employed by the Chinese government that aim to protect traditional culture while also recognising outstanding individuals. We also found that ICH Inheritors play an important role in raising cultural awareness and enhancing cultural confidence through their creative activities and making practices, craft businesses and transfer of expertise. Based on the findings, potential areas where designers may collaborate with inheritors were identified.

Imaginative design will be a crucial factor in enacting sustainability in people's daily lives. Yet current design practice is trapped in consumerist cycles of innovation and production, making it difficult to imagine how we might develop a more meaningful and sustainable rendition of material culture. Through fundamental design research, The Spirit of Design challenges a host of common assumptions about sustainability, progress, growth and globalization. Walker's practice-based explorations of localisation, human meaning and functional objects demonstrate the imaginative potential of research-through-design and yield a compelling, constructive and essentially hopeful direction for the future - one that radically re-imagines our material culture by meshing mass-production with individuality, products with place, and utilitarian benefit with environmental responsibility. In so doing, the author explores: - How understandings of human meaning affect design and how design can better incorporate issues of personal meaning - How mass production needs to become integrated with localised production and service provision - How short-lived electronic goods can be brought into a more sustainable design paradigm - The changing role of the designer in a post-consumerist world Taking a design-centred approach - a combination of creative, propositional design practice, reasoned argument and theoretical discussion - the book will impel readers to investigate the nature of contemporary material culture and its relationship to both the natural environment and to deeper notions of human meaning.

The paper presents conceptual designs that explore the notion of ‘sustainable aesthetics'. To encourage reflective practice through form and process, and guided by sustainable principles, a practice-based (thinking-and-doing) methodology was followed by Brazilian undergraduate design students. Beginning with a theoretical overview of the historical aesthetics of chess sets (premodern, modern and contemporary) the experimental findings show different approaches to thematic chess set designs that are guided by meaning-laden cultural considerations and developed using local, natural materials or reused (disposed) industrial materials. This is the first experiment of a project that represents a creative attempt to explore and develop an aesthetic for material culture through what we have termed a 'sustainable aesthetic function'. It demonstrates how objects with the same function can be expressed in very different ways whilst all adhering to the notion of "form follows meaning'.