Highly mobile societies demand for cross-cultural design strategies: a theoretical and practical exploration of German-Turkish cross-cultural designs for everyday objects

Abstract

This thesis deems that our daily lives are shaped by culture and argues that the designer's own cultural values influence the products' designs, while focusing on the main question; how can we create our own Turkish-German household archetype based on cultural differences. Taking culture into account during design activities can pave the way to the diversification of ideas for users who need satisfaction, consequently leading to innovation. It is necessary to redefine industrial design in order to subsume culture in the definition of industrial design as a goal for optimizing the lives of individual users. For this thesis, I will design a wall-mounted storage unit for the entryway of the houses, because this concept is my medium to connect cultures and to create a functional household object that people from a different cultural backgrounds can use in their houses easily. Key words: Cultural differences, archetypes, household objects, cross-cultural design, storage unit.