Exploring Indigenous Craft Materials and Sustainable Design—A Case Study Based on Taiwan Kavalan Banana Fibre

Abstract

For a long time, local craft traditions were passed on through apprenticeships. Consequently, new generations of designers and industries cannot easily intervene or produce new designs. This inability to integrate craft traditions in a modern context and changing cultural environment has resulted in the stagnation, decline, or even elimination of such crafts. This study focused on the use of banana fibres in the craft traditions of the Kavalan people of Taiwan, and research-through-design concepts were applied to the creative study of materials that are essential to ecological sustainability and cultural heritage. The method, Material Driven Design (MDD), was implemented through participation to experience traditional processes and explore the visible properties of craft materials. The goal was to gain a holistic understanding of materials and leverage the participants’ expertise in determining which steps in the methods could be improved. This process was supplemented with grounded theory, which was used to analyse and summarise the data in order to understand the factors influencing the creations of participants. Lastly, in addition to producing semifinished and finished products in our experiment, we believe that our findings regarding the examined materials and material tinkering to develop a material-tinkering loop based on the MDD can be (i) combined with the unique insights and technical expertise of designers and (ii) used alongside contemporary technical and digital aids to effectively support the continued development of innovative craft designs.