A Sustainable Product Design Model - Inspired by Studies on Everyday Chinese Objects

This work proposes a sustainable product design (SPD) model which is inspired by studies on everyday Chinese objects. The goal is to improve energy efficiency of household appliances. This research has been conducted in China, aiming to seek and organize embedded ecological wisdoms in selected everyday Chinese objects. First, a framework for understanding SPD has been proposed with associated criteria for selecting the target everyday objects. This framework is to be continuously improved and refined in our future work. Case studies on selected home thermal appliances, which are found in urban and countryside families, are presented, which investigate useful design insights for designing energy conversion products and build an energy transforming model by studying their philosophic roots. As an extension of the findings, a design model is proposed to provide a practical guide for energy efficient designs. In addition, a tool for searching new design opportunities based on the energy transforming model is also proposed. This research illustrates a structured method for studying everyday objects and investigating design insights. This research method is in testing and refining phase and is to be applied to everyday objects from other cultures.