Exploring Models of Design Thinking in Egypt

Abstract

Whether it’s an anxiety about identity loss, a fear of the speed of development of new technologies, or guilt over imperialist cultural influence, craft-based initiatives have been seen by many foreign-aid providers as an appropriate way to support developing nations. This practice is based on many attempts at utilising conventional design practices, and trying to apply them to industrial activities where the purpose is the production of material objects, by improving the production quality of crafts through the direct involvement of designers.

Many aid programmes have continually offered their support to handcraft sectors and/or local low-technology oriented manufacturing enterprises. The main objective behind many of those attempts is improving the quality of living conditions for the wider vital craft sectors in developing countries. In this context, aid programmes view conventional design capacities as a form of new knowledge that can be directed towards the improvement of the quality and industrial classification of local products, thus rendering them economically viable for export to international markets. Design practices are directly utilised to enhance these economic growth strategies.

This phenomenon pushed the movement towards addressing ‘Design for Development’ (late 1970s) which is concerned with constructing the discourse of design by drawing upon the development milieu of a specific context (the ways in which development programmes in ‘developing countries’ are enhanced by the application of design principles and strategies). As such the practice of design may focus upon the economically-weaker sections of society and may look to propose product and service solutions to improve quality of life. This dominant logic of economic rationalism did not help design practices to become an energetic feature in the development policies of developing countries.

New models continue to develop and aim at further involvement of design practices and applications that would lead to the fulfilment of the demand for better quality production of material objects in developing countries. Handcraft sectors were the first targets of these models, but the model is being increasingly applied to other fields of industrial production and also service design. This process is empowered
in some countries by a new paradigm of thinking that addressed the designer as a change-maker, postulating that “design can help raise the quality of life within economic planning and that the designer can become an agent of progress” (Ahmedabad Declaration, 1979).

Egypt is one of the unique examples of developing nations with a craft tradition that is deeply rooted in its socio-cultural and economical systems. This fact has supported Egypt in receiving design-oriented foreign development aid for decades. International and Non-governmental organisations have promoted the value of providing assistance towards the enhanced development of the wider craft production sectors, and their contributions have followed in terms of monetary support through both foreign aid and local organisations.

This study will explore and analytically discuss this stream of design thinking in Egypt, with the intention to:

• Create a conceptual framework linking the many factors involved in addressing the role of design in this socio-cultural practice.
• Present a model of new practices initiated by a group of Egyptian product designers aiming at
a better understanding of the role of design and designer in supporting this topic in Egypt.