Exploring the concept of interactive patina of culture

Designing for different cultures is a mandatory discipline of Industrial Design in our modern, globalized world. We observe that this has a first world touch most of the time: industrialized countries designing for less developed countries, where the design is often only executed and products are manufactured. This results in a clear mismatch of artifacts and culture. In this paper, we present the results of a workshop on designing for cultures and introduce the concept of the Interactive Patina of Culture as a different take on this. This more balanced concept spans from designer and the process of designing to the resulting designs and products. The concept is backed by our field exploration during the workshop where designers of two cultures meet and jointly realize the Interactive Patina of Culture in several products