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A Creation of Textile Design for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2021- 2022 Team Uniform Design
Assist.Prof.Dr. Thanotai Mongkolsin
Introduction :
Solar Decathlon Europe 2021-2022 (SDE 21-22) was a competition on designing and constructing energy-saving houses in Wuppertal, Germany. Architecture students from Bangkok University ( BU) participated and represented Thailand while the Fashion Design Department was responsible for providing functional uniforms with a textile pattern with Thai identity specifically designed for the competition.
Therefore, the focus of this study is to design a new BU architecture team’s textile pattern through the integration of the local wisdom of “Pha Khao Ma” (Thai loincloth) into the team uniforms. In this research, a new loincloth pattern was developed to be more contemporary. In addition, the researcher could exchange knowledge of weaving wisdom with local craftsman community. Both processes were conducted under two sustainable fashion and textile approaches: 1) “Recreate” is to creatively redesign from the existing design concept by developing a new loincloth pattern and employed villagers in Ban Suan Por women’s group, Roi Et province to provide them with income and careers, and 2) “ Longer Lasting Fashion” is to design using high quality materials and craftsmanship. Design makes the product beautiful, precious and timeless, as well as creating a deeper emotional bond with consumers further than its utility ( Fletcher & Grose, 2012) , resulting in a transgenerational outcome. Moreover, this research uses the Theory of Fashion & Textile Design Elements which consists of four key elements: Colour, Silhouette or form, Detail & Technique, and Material (Seivewright, 2012). The study methodology was divided into three parts. Firstly, the researcher acknowledged the regulations and restrictions of the SDE 21-22 competition and collected the information about Thai loincloth for inspirations. Secondly, the researcher interviewed architecture students and lecturers about their preferences of team uniform’ s textile pattern. Finally, a new loincloth pattern was designed, produced and incorporated in three sets of team uniform; 1) work wear, 2) business casual attire, and 3) tailored suit for BU architecture team in the competition.
Objectives:
1.to create a new textile pattern on Thai loincloth for BU Architecture team uniform for Solar Decathlon Europe 2021- 2022 (SDE 21-22)
2.To transfer knowledge between three groups of contributors; BU architecture team, fashion design lecturer, and local craft community
Methodology:
1.Concept: “ To design a new BU architecture team’ s uniform textile pattern with Thai identity through the integration of Thai local wisdom “ Pha Khao Ma” (Thai loincloth) for SDE 21-22”
2. Methodology: A Creation of Textile Design for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2021- 2022 Team Uniform Design is a qualitative research and a creative work. It used a qualitative methodology to collect information about the inspiration, SDE 21-22 team uniform regulations, and Thai local textile to define the research method and create Thai loincloth with the new pattern. It can be divided into three parts as follows:
2.1 Literature review
2.2 Target group interview
2.3 Design and conclusion
2.1 Literature review : In order to collect information for A Creation of Textile Design for the Solar Decathlon Europe 2021-2022 (SDE 21-22) Team Uniform Design, the steps are as follows:
2.1.1 Study the SDE 21-22 concepts and team uniform regulation from secondary sources such as documents, electronic media and related research to identify the background, restrictions
and definitions.
2.1.2 Study the concepts and theories about Thai loincloth
(Pha Kao Ma) pattern design by local craft community interviews and revision of secondary sources such as documents, books, textbooks, electronic media and related research.
2.1.3 Study concepts, theories, principles and Fashion and Textiles design elements from secondary sources such as documents, textbooks and related research to create a framework
for a new loincloth pattern in this research topic.
2.2 Target Group interview : At this stage, the research process is qualitative. Delphi technique was used to collect data from BU Architecture team in order to lead the creative design process further. Opinions from team members on relevant issues were synthesized to find a unified design conclusion (Wadecharoen, Lertnaisat, & Teekasub, 2017) in this research topic.
2.3 Design and conclusion : During this period, the researcher designed the pattern motifs to be a guideline with Delphi technique data collection. The researcher divided this process and summarized the results as follows.
2.3.1 Creating pattern motifs
1. Drafting pattern motifs and bringing them to the BU architecture team for selection
2. Weaving experimentation of the designed pattern to see the possibilities and weaknesses before proceeding with the improvement.
3. Weaving loincloth with the finalized pattern.
Summary and discussions including suggestions for further research
Satisfaction was assessed by the evaluation of the final
textile design by BU architecture team. The conclusion was summarized and suggestions for further research were discussed together.
Techniques and Materials:
A textile design with the local wisdom weaving / Recycled plastic bottle fibre
Conclusion:
The researcher received information about SDE 21-22 team uniform design to use as a reference to develop a new Thai loincloth pattern for BU architecture team. The above information was analyzed
with the following research results.
A table showing results from target group interview for BU architecture team’s textile design.
Fashion & Textile Design Elements
Colour > White, Yellow, and Dark blue
Form > Line stripes
Detail & Technique > Local wisdom weaving
Material > Recycled plastic bottle fiber
The researcher used this analysis as a guideline for designing the Thai loincloth pattern. The outcome is three line stripes, each of which measures one centimeter with three colours which are white, yellow
and dark blue as shown in the picture. The researcher then requested
a community of Thai loincloth weaver to produce the textile with recycled plastic bottle fiber. The woven product size is an 80 centimeters wide and 10 meters long textile which to be used for BU architecture’s team uniform in the SDE 21-22 competition.
References:
Broz, D. (2018). Northwestern University Common Spaces Design, SEGD Global Award, Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD). Retrieved March 3, 2023 from https://segd.org/northwestern-university-common.spaces-0.
Harvard Medical School (2023): News on Positive Psychology, Harvard Health Publishing website. Retrieved March 3, 2023 from https://www.health.harvard.edu/topics/positive-psychology.
Minning, L. (2021): BrandCulture: The Future of Built Environments After COVID-19, Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD). Retrieved March 3, 2023 from https://segd.org/blog/brandculture-future-built.environments-after-covid-19.
Nelson, G. (2020): How Will Buildings and Places Communicate Following the Pandemic, Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD). Retrieved March 3, 2023 from https://segd.org/blog/how-will-buildings-and-places.communicate-following-pandemic.
Seligman, M. (2018): PERMA and the building blocks of well-being, The Journal of Positive Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466.