Abstract
This article takes the Shenyang China Industrial Museum as an example to expose the interpretation and design of China's representative industrial heritage museums dominated by authoritative narratives and technocratic biases. Through the case study of the “Steel Home Still” exhibition, explore how narrative design can reconstruct industrial archives and challenge their power structure. This article conducts a comparative analysis of two cases based on three parameters: narrative themes and strategies, representation of individuals and workers, technology narratives and human engagement, discussing how human-centered exhibition narratives reposition human memory at the core of industrial heritage, transforming it from static representations of industrial and technological achievements into a dynamic platform for emotional connections and inclusive storytelling of workers and industries. The research results show the exhibition achieves this goal by reconstructing multi-dimensional scenes of workers' work and life, juxtaposing technological and living environments of different eras, and employing universal emotional narratives.
Keywords
Human-Centered Narrative Design; Industrial Heritage Museums; Social Equity and Cultural Inclusiveness; Emotional and Multi-sensory Experiences
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1554
Citation
Fu, Y., and Borsotti, M. (2026) Reconfiguring industrial heritage: Human-centered narrative design for reconciliation and inclusive storytelling, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1554
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Reconfiguring industrial heritage: Human-centered narrative design for reconciliation and inclusive storytelling
This article takes the Shenyang China Industrial Museum as an example to expose the interpretation and design of China's representative industrial heritage museums dominated by authoritative narratives and technocratic biases. Through the case study of the “Steel Home Still” exhibition, explore how narrative design can reconstruct industrial archives and challenge their power structure. This article conducts a comparative analysis of two cases based on three parameters: narrative themes and strategies, representation of individuals and workers, technology narratives and human engagement, discussing how human-centered exhibition narratives reposition human memory at the core of industrial heritage, transforming it from static representations of industrial and technological achievements into a dynamic platform for emotional connections and inclusive storytelling of workers and industries. The research results show the exhibition achieves this goal by reconstructing multi-dimensional scenes of workers' work and life, juxtaposing technological and living environments of different eras, and employing universal emotional narratives.