Abstract
Most designs of inclusive playgrounds and playground equipment focus on expanding the user group to include users with various disabilities. There is also a trend to diversify the age group from children and young people to adults and senior users with the hope that the playground is not only for children and young people but also for all people of different abilities and ages so that everyone may attain an equity play experience. As we attempt to design for inclusion, culture is often overlooked. There is a recursion that design produces culture, which, in return, impacts design. Implementing cultural aesthetics to playground equipment design opens opportunities for unique design and brings users familiarity. Designing inclusive playground equipment with cultural aesthetics can also bring awareness of cultural diversity and sustainability. Through a study abroad program visiting Taiwan for two months, an experimental design project was assigned to industrial design students from two schools of different cultural backgrounds to develop inclusive playground equipment that applies cultural aesthetics in the design. Through research, students study diverse user groups and identify objects representing a specific culture, namely, Taiwanese. Through the collaboration of the two groups of students in five teams, five pieces of playground equipment with cultural aesthetics were systematically developed. The project not only facilitates students in exploring different possibilities of applying cultural aesthetics to design appropriately but also helps students learn about the importance of culture in design.
Author Information
Tin-Man Lau, Auburn University, United States
Chyun-Chau Lin, Shu-Te University, Taiwan
Paper Information
Conference: IICAH2025
Stream: Aesthetics
This paper is part of the IICAH2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window
To cite this article:
Lau T., & Lin C. (2025) Cultural Aesthetics in Inclusive Playground Equipment Design ISSN: 2432-4604 – The IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities – Hawaii 2025 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 255-266) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2025.22
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2025.22
Comments
Powered by WP LinkPress