A Forward Society, Not a Culture Frozen in Time

A New Gen movement is an interesting social phenomenon where they started to ask questions and challenge many societal issues including traditions, beliefs, and cultures that have been passed down through generations. They are not trying to disregard or defy all the old traditions, what they do is bring it out and reinterpret it into their own. Though this might not see eye to eye with some adults, we have to admit these changes are inevitable. To keep its longevity is not to keep it in the most original form but it should allow some flexibility, ready for change suitable to the time, adjustable to the modern ideas and open space for the growth of people’s mindsets. Culture has been the main driving force of the creative society and economic growth, we would like to bring you some examples.   Laggard becomes Avant-garde  Creativity happens from years of experience. Layers of the years, number of things around us that we have absorbed like culture, traditions and art. Many of them seem to have backwards elements that nobody paid attention to but they can become great ingredients for design ideas unexpectedly. Like in the case of “Himmapan Marshmello” (“หิมพานต์มาร์ชเมลโล่”) that went viral in 2020, it started with an image of Himmapan creatures someone found situated in the temples of southern and northern Thailand. The creatures have been sculpted roughly with simple features, not the typically detailed creatures you would see from a professional sculptor of such. This is because the sculptors are local people who are, despite the lack of academic knowledge, driven by their beliefs and helped out at their local temples. But in a way, these creatures look cute and cuddly, and people on the internet are drawn to it and it inspired many fanarts. The trend grew into baked goods, keychains, and models of these squishy creatures. It also brought about another trend where the new generations are turning their attentions to visiting more temples to see these creatures. Some were so interested in these Himmapan creatures that they would research further about their origin. Though the trend has died down, the Facebook group “Himmapan Marshmallow” is still pretty active. People are still sharing updated photos of the creatures at their temple visits. This has built our habits of observation around ourselves to find good ingredients for creating and creatively giving more value to relatively everyday things.   Design What’s Nearby and Take Creativity Even Further One of the creativity’s integral functions is reviving something that may not have any value and turning it into something of economic value. Local ingredients and wisdom values are especially overlooked and gradually disappear.  Stores like the “Citizen of Nowhere” are a contemporary design store with a slogan of “Artisanal Products made by local craftsmen.” The store focuses on using local ingredients and local artisans in Thailand for production. Their handbags are made of local reed plants, “saad kok”, and the local weaving technique specific to Chanthaburi province in their modern and bold designs. Other than shining light on new possibilities in the local wisdom, it also distributes income to the locals as well. The mastermind behind the store is none other than Saran Yen Panya, a designer whose speciality is picking up what’s nearby and retelling its story through various designs. Something his designs have in common is his brilliantly sarcastic voice. People may have known him from his “Cheap Ass Elites” work that brought plastic fruit baskets, seen plenty in wet markets, and turned them into posh designs.     Culture-infused Entertainment, the Hits and Money Blast You might remember a very popular Korean drama “Dae Jang Geum: A Jewel in the Palace”, then you know a tremendous wave of Korean culture influence from the series has brought about Korea’s travel and food industries. Fast forward to 2021, Korean drama series are still a great mechanism that infuses Korean culture that successfully presents Korean representations to the world.   Like the “Squid Game” phenomenon that catapulted a quiet traditional Korean snack “Dalgona” into stardom, there are many clips on YouTube demonstrating how to make it. Or a heavy hitter K-drama like “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha”, a story about a dentist who moved out of Seoul City to Gongjin, a small fishery village filled with romantic air and warmth from the villagers helping each other out. Not only is the dreamy character of “Hong Leader” a great asset that stole every girl’s heart, but the series also helped spread travel waves outside the urban city of Seoul that have reached a point. The selling move is pretty successful because it is reported that during the Korean Chuseok holidays, a significantly large number of travellers travelled to Pohang, the series shooting site location.   If you are interested in seeing the connections between culture and the creative economy in many aspects. You cannot miss Bangkok Design Week 2022 under the theme “Co With Creation” on 5-13 Feb 2022. We have interesting designs for you to see, where culture and local resources are being reinterpreted. We guarantee you will get inspired by these creative works at the festival.   #BKKDW2022 #BangkokDesignWeek #CoWithCreation    

Eco Design : Covid accelerates consciousness in sustainable design

Eco Design : Covid accelerates consciousness in sustainable design Not long ago, reducing the use of single-use plastics has been trending in Thailand. People became more aware of their negative impacts. Trends like carrying your own reusable shopping tote bags and bringing old bottles to refill stations are also adopted. But the Covid pandemic has caused the inevitable use of plastics. Increasing amounts of waste from plastic food delivery packages and facemasks made from micro-plastic beads are due to the understandable unavoidable circumstance. But what we can do is choose to support eco-minded businesses that also include the correct waste management. So that the infectious waste can easily be disposed of and other recyclable plastic waste can be reused to its full potential. Moreover, there are more ideas from different aspects that can be put to use and alleviate environmental issues. Let’s see what interesting ideas and designs are there.   Social Fashionista, without wearing the Fashion Fast Fashion is a low-budget production process that has a massive negative environmental impact. Along with slave labour issues with unfair wages. So many brands are trying to reduce their negative impact on the Earth with other methods. Through methods like producing organic materials clothing, turning old products into new items and reusing surplus materials. Some brands just chose not to produce any more items at all. That is a Norwegian brand called Carlings, being inspired by the insights they found on how people only order clothes from online shops to wear once, just to take photos and post them on their social media. Once posted, they would return the products back to the shops. Not only giving the shops a headache but it is wasteful of resources as well. With the insights, the brand created the idea of 3D clothing, where the customer sends in their portraits and in return cool and fashionable clothes are retouched on the portraits and social media post ready. Not only the customer gets their likes but without wasting any production or transportation resources. It is such a clever and fun idea that the company received a Grand Prix award in Digital Craft at Cannes Lions 2019.   Eco-friendly Design from the Get-go When we say recycle we think of repurposing waste. But there is another upcoming new idea, ‘Circular Design’ which incorporates design right from the start. Thinking of a piece of a product’s full cycle, how it will be reused easily to its full potential and still able to be put back into the cycle again. For example, PaperLab, developed by Epson, is an all-in-one printer that produces recycled papers. All you have to do is place used papers in and it will recycle those papers in minutes. It definitely should be a staple in your office.   Circular Design can be used and adopted in many industries. For instance, the fashion producers would focus just on beauty. Their material choices for production could be difficult to reuse and become unnecessarily wasteful. But if they have circularity aspects in mind and think about the reusability of the materials right from initial designs. They would be able to reduce unnecessary use of resources and not produce any more waste, which in turn creates a more sustainable production process.   From Waste Crisis to Substitute Materials The Virtual Design Festival 2020 was set up by the New Designers group in England, showcasing interesting graduate works. One of them is the instant noodles packaging made with edible biomaterials. It is a work by Holly Grounds, a graduate from Ravensbourne University that created the noodle packaging from potato starch. And the package has already been fully seasoned, all you have to do is pour in boiling water on it without any fuss of tearing up the sachets. More importantly, no waste. Speaking of which, there are also similar ideas proposed by a Thai PhD student in Food Science and Technology from Prince of Songkla University, who discovered methods in turning gelatin in the fish skin waste from food processing factories into seasoning packagings or another research of students from Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon in Industrial Materials Science, who invented biodegradable plastics film from pineapple leaves. These innovations are killing two birds with one stone, not only reducing plastic waste but also repurposing industrial waste. Although these innovations are yet to be adopted by large scale businesses due to the high cost of the new technology investments. But for smaller-scale businesses which have more flexibility, these ideas can potentially top off the creativity for eco-friendly products.   “Carbon Label” is as Important as Nutrition Label These days people around the world are more aware of carbon emission which is a major factor in global warming problems. Many brands are trying to present their eco-minded visions through campaigns. Like Oatly, a large oat milk company, trying to communicate its message by presenting plant-based products in a more eco-friendly light than dairy products. As many may have known, cattle raising is the main contributor to greenhouse gases. Additionally, Oatly also promotes sustainable farming which includes easy to recycle package designs and a “Carbon Label” campaign. So the consumers are able to see how much product carbon footprint is produced from the farm, factory and transportation. By showing their company transparency and their eco-minded selling points the brand is well-loved by the consumers. On top of that, they are also partnering up with famous coffee shop Starbucks.   There are still more innovations and eco-designs that address environmental issues. Every green-caring person should not miss out on Bangkok Design Week 2022 under the theme “Co With Creation” which is happening on 5-13 Feb 2022. Let’s find the answers and learn together about the challenges to our earth and how designs help solve the issues.   #BKKDW2022 #BangkokDesignWeek #CoWithCreation   Reference   https://www.canneslions.com/enter/awards/craft/digital-craft-lions/address-the-future-case-study https://www.epson.co.th/be-cool-paperlab https://www.dezeen.com/2020/07/13/holly-grounds-dissolvable-noodle-packaging-design  

Mental Health Design

Mental Health Design : mind restoration with designs The seemingly never-ending Covid-19 pandemic is a major factor for the declining mental health of people of all ages. Teenagers, workers, and retirees alike have accumulated a lot of stress from dealing with a number of issues and bad news in their lives. Some even lost their family members. The disheartening situations are not easy for anyone. In 2020, an analytics and advisory company, Gallup, which has been continuously studying the global emotions level revealed that this has been the highest negative emotions level in their 15 years of study.   Usually, there are signals in physical illness but mental illness would slowly creep up and accumulate without even realising. Therefore it is crucial that you regularly check up on your mental health and keep up the spirit amid uncertainty. Experts in many fields are searching for solutions for societal healing with research and innovations restoring people’s mental health. Let’s see what innovations are out there to help restore people’s minds.   The App that Looks Out for You Mental health application startups have been developing for a while now. Their users kept growing in the times where everyone was feeling down. ORCHA researchers said that during the Covid pandemic and the lockdowns mental health apps usage increased 200%. The main reason is, people turn to apps to deal with their increasing depression and prevent them from hurting themselves.   In the eyes of designers and investors, the health technology market is quite saturated. But there is still room for new improvements like the Exhale app that is specifically designed for black-African, coloured, and indigenous women mental restorations. The therapeutic app functions especially with a deep understanding of a particular group of people and knowing their deep wounds. The app became a space where they can trust and enjoy their mental healing journey. Because they know they are in good hands. Exhale app also received a Webby Award in Apps and Software Health & Fitness 2021. Also, the app developers already have plans for wider expansion for other communications in the future.   Are you feeling ok? Monsters know best Research shows that 74.6% of young Thais accumulated a lot of stress and anxiety from online learning. In the news, many young ones even decided to end their lives. The issue of mental health in young people is as big as in adults. Many groups of adults are trying to find solutions to help and heal these young people. One of many projects is “Meet Your Monster”, a work of the Equitable Education Fund (EEF), Glow Story and a team of MASTERPEACE researchers have brought in a psychotherapy tool and revamped it. Making it friendlier and relatable for the target audience by creating 4 “Monsters” that represent characteristics and attributes of hidden anxiety to cheer the young up, assist them to a deeper understanding of themselves and know how to properly handle their emotions. This project has recently received an award in Creative for Sharing from Adman Awards & Symposium 2020-2021. Interested young people, can check up the basic mental health here at https://meetyourmonster.paperform.co   New Therapy, No Contact Mindbody have been researching the trend of caring for the health of America and found 31% of Americans are interested in trying a new form of mind and body healing therapy services with no direct contact due to the covid-19 concerns. Services like Cryotherapy, Pressure Therapy, Hyperbaric Therapy, Salt cave, Infrared Sauna, and Hydro-Floating Therapy are therapeutic methods that are gaining more interest in other countries. And there are more services like this increasingly available in Thailand.   In the City full of advancements like New York City, a studio called ReCOVER focuses on combining new technology with psychotherapeutic methods, founded by Rick Richey and Aaron Drogoszewski who have been in fitness circles for 40 years. They realised a gap between relaxing spa and physical revitalisation therapy, thus they tried to combine the two and it has been very well-received. An interesting psychotherapy machine NuCalm helps de-stress and anxiety improves sleeps through brain stimulation with soundtracks therapy, generates GABA nourishment for the brain and blindfolds the eyes for relaxation, making a 30-minute therapy feels like 2-3 hours deep power nap which makes the body feels calm and relax.   Restoration, No matter where you are The lockdowns during Covid-19 caused many places to temporarily close. But human creativity never stops and many interesting projects are popping up around the world. We will show you some. The first project of The Rubin Museum of Art created therapeutic programs for people to heal in Buddhist ways. The online exhibition that became the most popular is the room with a 2-hour long video clip of Tibetan monks’ prayer. The museum has specially curated the exhibition to be a safe bunker for meditation in times of stress and anxiety.   Another interesting project from the Monterey Bay Aquarium invited ocean lovers to relax and meditate with the MeditOcean series of 10-15 minutes video clips that contain the sounds of sea waves rippling, jellyfish floating about, sea turtles gliding around and schools of fish slowly swimming along. Images of artistically displayed sea creatures combined with a soft-spoken sound guiding through the meditation steps create enjoyment and relaxation. This has become another way to bring balance back to the mind that you can easily do yourself at home. It also works very well during the quarantine period and is an interesting idea that inspires more online creative activities in the future.   If you are interested in thoroughly knowing more about therapeutic methods and mental restoration through designs, Bangkok Design Week 2022 under the theme “Co With Creation” during 5-13 Feb 2022 is where to go. We brought together mental restoration designs from various perspectives and invite you to “co-think” with us to prepare for future challenges with stronger minds!   #BKKDW2022 #BangkokDesignWeek #CoWithCreation

Spatial Design, When Covid is Here to Stay

Spatial Design: When Covid is Here to Stay  People are still dreaming of the old days before Covid-19, but the world never turns back around. Even though this pandemic shall pass, more challenges are emerging and waiting for us. Preparing for these challenging new roads ahead are many designers’ main focus. Especially in the field of spatial design in both personal and public spaces. For spatial design, reducing infections risks and virus spreads and preparing for future emerging infectious disease (EID) becomes the focal point. Let’s explore these spatial design trends and find the new emerging possibilities together.      Fitting the World into the Home People’s definition of home changed greatly these days. Pre-Covid, a “home” is just a space to sleep and relax, now when leaving home is difficult and risky many people started to look to more activities they could do at home like exercise, work, movies and shopping etc. Designing the favourite spot in the new-era home requires deeper understanding. And also, personalising the space to inhabitants’ lifestyle needs like a fitness area, a cinema nook, a fully-equipped kitchen and a productivity-inspired home office setup. Creating a multifunctional home, an all-rounded, happiness filled everyday home.   On another note, Lumpini Wisdom, a research and consultancy firm under LPN network, conducted survey research revealing that Smart Residences growth average is more than 40% per year. These Smart homes are spaces that are functional in terms of living, environmentally friendly, and bring in technologies for modern and convenient lifestyles. These also include designs that support the health and safety aspects like good airflow circulation, sensor-activated appliances which is what Post-Covid consumers are looking for in a home.     New Perspective on Public Spaces Innovative spatial designs are not just about creating new things for the new normal life but also bringing “System Thinking” in to utilise the space through a new perspective, for instance, Domino Park in Brooklyn, New York, one of the firsts where vaccinated population ratios enable them to lift the lockdown restrictions and return to life as normal again. Rewinding a bit to mid-2020, New York’s experience with the Covid-19 pandemic is still on high alert, circles were drawn on the grass and official rules were imposed so that people who craved the outdoors to stay distant from each other and safely enjoyed the sun. The idea reflects human resilience, social responsibility, and cooperation where everyday life can be enjoyed along with continuing to prevent the spread of the virus.   Another interesting case in Hong Kong, the “Brief Encounters” project, a public spatial design that brings us together without worry. The project tried to address both the public’s craving for physical interactivities and worries about the ongoing pandemic. Meeting each other in person with colourful plastic sheet partitions in between putting our mind at ease and feeling safer. The designers put together with steel frames and transparent sheets into accordion folds for easy setup and transport. The folds curves create new different dimensions for the space, transforming into a livelier and more colourful one. You can see each other through the transparent materials, doesn’t make them feel like they are being restricted around them. Seems like we will be seeing more of this spatial design in the future of the new Covid-19 era.     A Mixture of Nature and Spatial Design When life is on a rapid beat, always running after new technologies and Covid is also an accelerator of accumulating stress. Humans like us need to find a quick fix, healing our mentality, through nature therapy and green. Reviving the green into the urban life became a running trend for future architectural design that gained more attention in the Covid-19 era like the project Skylines from Lissoni Casal Ribeiro which received an honourable mention from Skyhive 2020 Skyscraper Challenge. The idea behind the project was to create a “vertical forest” on the side of the skyscrapers building structure in the city centre. To functionally use the plants in several aspects, first terms of presenting biodiversity, at the same time purifying the air, and producing renewable power, second as a green space creating a calming atmosphere that is hugely healing to the human mind.     Revitalising the City with Creativity A strategic move many cities adopted to revitalise the city and its people after a long stagnation, is boosting the economy by having creative works that would become the cities’ attractions. Countries around the world got back into hosting art exhibitions again. Particularly, public art installations urge people to come out and enjoy life outside. Exhibitions are shown in large public spaces, spacious and less crowded to reduce infections risks. Like Luma Festival, a projection mapping festival, which creatively adds colours and animations onto buildings, happened with new conditions, limiting the number of audiences, with a ruling of health and safety regulations. Or wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in Paris for 16 days (18 Sep-3 Oct 2021) as a public art installation piece, a brainchild of a famous wrapped artist Christo, who had been planning the project for 60 years with his wife Jeanne-Claude. Although he had passed away in 2020, his grandson and team went forward and fulfilled his plan, sparking movements in the Paris art scene again.   In the near future, we believe to see many spatial designs that tackle Covid and other emerging challenges because human creativity never stops. Bangkok Design Week 2022 under the theme “Co With Creation” during 5-13 Feb 2022 will be a pinnacle for showcasing the potentiality of interesting architectural and spatial designs which is worth a visit.     #BKKDW2022 #BangkokDesignWeek #CoWithCreation

Get Ready! Co With 5 Main Topics in Bangkok Design Week 2022

After taking you on a reflection trip of what’s been happening in the past years, followed by the near future trends forecast and learning about the theme and key idea behind “Co With Creation”. Now, it’s time to talk about the 5 main topics in Bangkok Design Week this year. The earlier you know them the better because every topic is important in the present and it will shake up your life one way or another.    Get ready to explore these 5 main topics in Bangkok Design Week happening in 5-13 February 2022 under the theme “Co With Creation”.   Co With Space  ‘Space’ is an important topic where Bangkok Design Week has been looking at since the early years of the festival. How does the idea of space change? What kind of living space post-Covid-19 would be from the impact of the past year? What will the community and public spaces become at times when everyone yearns for human interactions and at the same time is still concerned about health safety? What is the Covid impact on the economy and how it changes our city? What’s the balance between preserving the old and developing the new? Can nature play a role in revitalising the city and human mind and feeling?   Discover many programs that question the possibilities of space in many forms from designers who work with city and space. Explore the challenge in spatial design in the future and get excited about revitalising city space with designs.   Co With Mental Health ‘Designs to address mental issues’ is another topic Bangkok Design Week wants to present this year. Because this major issue is a result of the two years long lingering crisis and is something like an undercurrent that many don’t realise happening. It also has a big impact on society if left untreated. How does design help people to become more aware of the importance of mental illnesses that are becoming a big issue in the present? How does design help heal and relieve stress and create happiness, relaxes anyone in this crisis? What kind of city designs help shield people’s mental health and sustainably take care of societal health?   Feel the possibilities from many programs that bring together designs incorporating mental health and let you explore your mind and learn how to be a safe zone mental to people around you.    Co With Eco ‘Environmental crisis’ is no longer about the future, it’s happening now and has gotten worse rapidly due to the crisis in the past two years. This is our responsibility as global citizens. How do designs help slow down this crisis? How would design ideas help create a circular and sustainable environment? How could innovations help reduce waste, the burden to the earth and change it into something more useful? Can new technologies and platforms become a part of creating sustainability?    Discover and be inspired by the ideas from designers about the ways to solve environmental issues. Through many programs in the festival this year, designers and creators show us that you can also take part in helping to solve this global issue.   Co With Culture When questioning slowly melts away the frozen culture, opening up the space for people in the society to present more ideas. Open a place where it can be adjusted to make it better, changed to fit the period and added to bring more values, leading us to the numerous possibilities and key questions on how design can help present culture in a contemporary way? What kind of creative ideas can help boost the worth and economic value of the existing cultural ingredients? How can designers utilise local resources and wisdom to the highest of their ability?   Get excited with the design works that invite you to crack the code, interpret and retell culture in many ways, showing you ‘culture’ has changed.   Co With Future  In the times where new things happen daily, instead of running away from what we’re not used to, try to get to know it once more. To prepare for the upcoming future and if you are a creator you will want to know how these new techs right now and in the future can help add to creativity? What design directions do innovations and tools change in the future? What will become of the creative and design process in the future and what will be the following impact of this technology change?    Beam through to learn about what’s coming in the near future with the design works that utilise technology as their main ingredient, ready for you to be the first to ‘co-operate’ with the future.   #BKKDW2022 #BangkokDesignWeek #CoWithCreation

The new normal way of life with ideas from design students

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone has to adjust to a new normal life. At the same time, technology has advanced rapidly, transforming culture, belief, and societal value along with the new era. The question is how the identity of the prosper district in the past changed and continue with the new normal life.   Academic Program presents this year’s student works that address the topic READY made: New normal of culture, with Me – Pibool Amornjiraporn architect and founder of plural designs as the Academic Program 2022 curator. Also, see what interesting things were found whilst working with the team of young enthusiastic designers from 9 universities.   The Beginning of Academic Program “Bangkok Design Week, in general, is open for designers to showcase their works. Every year there are students from universities sent in their work, most of the time the universities will send works which the students have been working on during the year. Previously, the program was named ‘ปล่อยแสง (unleash the light)’. Due to the variety of fields in which they study like furniture design, interior design, product design, and graphics design , the exhibition pieces have various narratives that don’t correlate with the festival theme. We then discussed with the festival team to set up a special project for the university students to work on the same theme. This will ensure that the exhibition is more cohesive to the festival’s theme and working under one unifying theme would also send out a stronger message than working separately. This is the idea that began the Academic Programs 3 years ago.”   The Process of Creativity   “We started by sending out the information about the theme and show period to the universities to see whether they are interested. The working process is not easy because new pieces have to be created, also it’s  the period where the universities have different teaching hours. We are thankful to all the universities that are participating with their pieces of works. In the previous year, the majority of work was from the furniture and product design faculty. This year, we have added Faculty of Architecture as well because we see the importance of public space and small-scale architecture such as home isolation space. After the initial brief was sent out, we then gathered all the universities to present their projects and we help guide and support the project all the way to the final set up because the project’s scale is quite different from their usual student projects.”   “From previous working experience, some students’ works are very specialised, referencing certain studies, and in-depth. Although, that is a good thing, often hard for the general public to understand. with a clear theme and direction in the festival exhibition, the pieces became easier to understand.”   “The topic this year is READY made: New normal of culture. ‘READY made’ firstly represents our readiness, whether you are ready or not, nature waits for no one. In the period of the past 1-2 years, we have to adjust to numerous aspects of life. These adjustments often required us to make use of what is ready around us, similar to the ready-made art idea. Secondly, it also represents our adjustments to the surrounding context of life, to be ready for the new normal way of life which happens to everyone like online-learning, working from home, or home isolation.”   Create the New in the Old Community   The main sites for the Academic Program 2022 are located at the Haroon Mosque and Talad Noi Community which is the old historical community that has been with Charoenkrung road for over 100 years. The “Co With Creation” idea that talks about the cooperation to create new possibilities, has turned our focus on working together with the community by bringing out the uniqueness of the area in the different scales of work scattered around the area.      “The student projects are already quite experimental and fresh. This year, we had the opportunity to work with the Creative District team so we had Talad Noi and Haroon Mosque communities sightseeing trips for the universities to choose the area they would like to work with and learn about the area’s unique identities and cultural elements. Haroon Mosque is a majority Muslim community and Talad Noi is a Chinese community, we want the students to bring out those qualities and incorporate them with the work to present the communities.”   “Currently, we have 1 project at Haroon Mosque community and the majority of 8 projects are at Talad Noi. During the making process, we would talk over with the community representatives and property owners, to show the works in Talad Noi community spaces such as San Chao Rong Kulak and Bhanurangsi Pier, as well as the private spaces of shops and cafés.”   If you have a chance to visit the Academic Program, you will find the works from the new generation of designers who are ready for change. The designers are ready to drive the creative economy in the old communities like Haroon Mosque and Talad Noi into the new world of challenges. This program is one to watch in Bangkok Design Week on 5-13 February 2022.     Academic Program Website : bangkokdesignweek.com Facebook : facebook.com/BangkokDesignWeek Instagram : @bangkokdesignweek   Plural Designs Website : pluraldesigns.net Facebook : facebook.com/pluraldesigns      

Co With Garden

ทำไมต้อง Co With Creation ? เข้าใจแนวคิด Bangkok Design Week 2022

Bangkok Design Week returns with the important mission, to always push forward the creative economy and support the creative potential. The Bangkok Design Week takes the role to be the space to unleash the creators’ potential. Being a space for networking and connecting designers and entrepreneurs together. We also encourage everyone to ask questions and find the answers together on interesting issues. Push the economy forward with designs towards the goal, by making designs and creativity about everyone, not limited to only the ones in the fields.   We cannot deny, the most important issue the world is facing this year is the Covid-19 effects. In the future, there will be even more challenges no one expects ahead waiting for us. Bringing us to the question ‘What’s the key to our survival from the present challenges and new problems in the future ?’   Our answer is to “Co-operate”. Lead us to the idea behind this year’s festival.   Why “Co” ? Making preparations ahead to handle any circumstances and searching for ways to happily live in the new normal world is the main focus for the world this year. The more challenges, the more experts in more fields are needed. We cannot rely on only one anymore. We need every expert to co-operate and utilise their expertise and creativity to think, create, and survive the one big issue. This may be the start of something new that is yet to be discovered and create results that take us further.   What do we “Co-operating” with this year at the festival ? Among the surrounding challenges, there are 5 main areas present this year at the festival.   1.Co with Space Tackling challenges Covid-19 and more in the future throw at us with spatial design. Through exploring new possibilities of living space in a time where health safety is the top priority and redefining the meaning of public space on the days where many yearn for socialising and nature.   2.Co with Mental Health When mental health is as important as physical health, how are designs able to heal and send messages about mental issues to a wider audience and alleviate the issues brewing in society ?   3.Co with Eco When Covid-19 accelerates ecological issues twofold, we searched for creative ideas that help find ways to slow down the time of crisis and compensate nature and the environment as much as we can.   4.Co with Culture Pick up and challenge culture from its frozen state, turn it around, reinterpret and present it in a different light. Using designs and creativity to add value to the local resources around us that may have been overlooked and gradually disappearing. Make it shine and become valuable economically again.   5.Co with Future Now that technology is changing our way of living in every dimension. In the midst of this fast-paced movement, how do we bring creativity in to create a chance and new possibilities ?   We cannot go without mentioning co-operating with you, because everyone is an important part of the festival. This year we would like to invite you to explore and ideate together in Bangkok Design Week 2022 “Co With Creation” during 5-13 Feb 2022.   #BKKDW2022 #BangkokDesignWeek #CoWithCreation