Italia Design Field School 2006

Research / Interaction Design

Overview

In 2006, I was selected amongst my peers as 1 of 13 students to participate in the Italia Design Field School. The Italia Design Field School is a program run by SIAT professor, Russell Taylor. Beginning in 2004, this program has been running every year since then.

Role

I was involved in the concept, research and editing for the Italian Design and China paper along with Simon Kwok, Jenny Thai and Lian Xue. I also created a meta-model to illustrate our theories for the paper. I was also responsible for any Flash (Actionscript 2.0, XML, CSS, HTML) related web development for the housing site for our research.

Outcome

The purpose of the study was to research design and innovation and more specifically Italian Design. In the 2006 year, we interviewed 14 Designers and Architects from Alessandro Mendini, Massimiliano Fuksas, to industrial giants Segis and Alessi, and studios like Artemide. Following the 8 weeks spent in-field, we published all our data and findings from the interviews online as well as research papers based on our research.

Pre-Trip (4 - Weeks)

An intensive course on Italian History, Culture and Design. We also spent time preparing for our interviews. Topics for research papers were chosen.

In Field (8 Weeks)

Travelled through Rome, Tuscany, Florence and Milan conducting interviews and gathering research. We also had 2 projects on pattern languages.

Post-Trip (3 Months)

Was a part of the research team for the paper, "Towards the Liquid Network: China and Italy in the new economy." Also was a part of the web development team involved in synthesizing and publishing our research and findings over the past 6 months.

Tuscan Hill Town Study

This project focused on the evolution of the specific Tuscan hill towns we studied. Due to the increase in foreign visitors, the hill towns have had to adapt to tourists while still maintaining their Tuscan roots. The towns have naturally formed and evolved to keep tourists in certain areas of the city, which we discovered through pattern language analysis and urban movement.

© Christine Poh, 2011