Intercultural Design Narratives: A Case of Material Meaning-Making through Narrative-Based Co-Design
Abstract
This paper examines how intercultural co-design can facilitate material meaning-making through narrative-based design approaches. Focusing on a five-day workshop conducted between a Japanese material innovation company and an Indian design school, the study explores how participants engaged in collaborative storytelling and prototyping to reinterpret eri silk—a sustainable and ethically produced silk fiber. Through a Research through Design (RtD) methodology, four interdisciplinary student teams developed distinct narratives that reframed the material’s meaning across cultural, technological, and ethical dimensions. The findings reveal that narrative-driven co-design enables plural and situated perspectives to emerge, allowing traditional materials to be reimagined in new socio cultural and future- oriented contexts. Rather than treating material as a static resource, this study positions it as a dynamic medium that gains meaning through collaborative interpretation and cultural dialogue. The study contributes to design research by articulating how narrative methods can be used not only to generate product ideas, but also to construct alternative worldviews embedded in design processes. In particular, the study offers insight into how intercultural collaboration can expand the semantic possibilities of materials through the convergence of diverse experiences and design values. By framing narratives as both a method and an outcome, this research highlights the potential of design to mediate between tradition and transformation. The paper concludes by suggesting that narrative-based co-design can serve as a generative tool for material innovation, while fostering intercultural understanding and pluriversal futures in design education and practice.
Keywords
Design Narrative Worldmaking; Design Driven Innovation; Intercultural Co-design; Material Meaning-Making; Pluriversal futures
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.957
Citation
Yasuyuki, H., Ketan, S.,and Harshit, D.(2025) Intercultural Design Narratives: A Case of Material Meaning-Making through Narrative-Based Co-Design, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.957
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 6 - Co-creation
Intercultural Design Narratives: A Case of Material Meaning-Making through Narrative-Based Co-Design
This paper examines how intercultural co-design can facilitate material meaning-making through narrative-based design approaches. Focusing on a five-day workshop conducted between a Japanese material innovation company and an Indian design school, the study explores how participants engaged in collaborative storytelling and prototyping to reinterpret eri silk—a sustainable and ethically produced silk fiber. Through a Research through Design (RtD) methodology, four interdisciplinary student teams developed distinct narratives that reframed the material’s meaning across cultural, technological, and ethical dimensions. The findings reveal that narrative-driven co-design enables plural and situated perspectives to emerge, allowing traditional materials to be reimagined in new socio cultural and future- oriented contexts. Rather than treating material as a static resource, this study positions it as a dynamic medium that gains meaning through collaborative interpretation and cultural dialogue. The study contributes to design research by articulating how narrative methods can be used not only to generate product ideas, but also to construct alternative worldviews embedded in design processes. In particular, the study offers insight into how intercultural collaboration can expand the semantic possibilities of materials through the convergence of diverse experiences and design values. By framing narratives as both a method and an outcome, this research highlights the potential of design to mediate between tradition and transformation. The paper concludes by suggesting that narrative-based co-design can serve as a generative tool for material innovation, while fostering intercultural understanding and pluriversal futures in design education and practice.