An Educational Programme Aiming at Restoration of a Traditional Playground andBamboo Crafts and Toys for Children, Naoto Suzuki 3“Hometown designer”, as a profession, let alone as a terminology, has yet to fully bloom andbecome recognized in Japan. One of the academic programs offered by Chiba University inIsumi City, Chiba Prefecture, intends to focus on restoration of Satoyama- bush hills located notfar from the residential areas through promoting traditional bamboo crafts making amongchildren, coupled with cleaning/cutting bamboo for space making and making playing toys. Theprogram offers an opportunity for students to work closely with children and parents to improvetheir design and implementation capacities as well as for the parents to take initiatives forcontinuation of this educational program for their children. Rhetorically connoting a medicalprescription written by a home doctor to treat an illness, the academic program on “designing aliving” reflects a careful diagnosis of the drastic changes to the cultural, social, environmental,and economic conditions particular to a region or town and the solutions thereof. With thisacting as a rubric or new perception of a specialist’s role, the paper analyzes the basicapproaches that a specialist should apply and the key factors that assure sustainable educationalprograms for the children who will act as a driving force to pass down our traditional arts andcrafts to the next generations. Specifically, these refer to the academic program’s features onidentifying indigenous resources (treasures), identifying and screening nonproblem-solving–based ideas, and formulating future visions.The paper firstly presents the features of the program implementation and the lessons learned.The headings of the lessons learned are as follows (1) Sharpened Sense of ResourceIdentification through Role Playing, (2) Correlation between Degree of Participation andSustainability, (3) Functioning Non-problem Identification Approach, (4) Comprehension onHare (state of nondaily-life) and Ke (state of ongoing daily life) for Craft MakingSecondly, it presents the proper evaluation methodologies for children’s educational programsemploying cultural resources. When designing a living aims to enhance children’s awarenesstoward tradition in the above mentioned approach, its sustainability should not be assessed ineconomic terms. Rather, it should be assessed through various social perspectives and reviewedfrom various macro perspectives as well as from micro design functions, which are closelyrelated to cultural elements. Besides these perspectives, the nature and magnitude of the designgoal should be integral criteria in the critical assessment of the rationality of the proposed“designing a living” program. The author intends to show that the children’s educationalprogram can be further improved through the activation of positive social linkages andexchanges within the local population. The paper thus analyzes the sustainability of this3Ph.D., Regional Development, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Chiba University.Professor, Design Culture Unit, Design Science, Graduate School of Engineering, ChibaUniversity. Senior Industrial Development Officer, Private Sector Development Branch/IPC,United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Vienna, Austria (1978- 2003).Consultant, Engineering Consulting Firms Association (ECFA), Tokyo, Japan (1975-1978).Presented various technical papers among them: “Effective Regional Development throughArtisan Craft Promotion”- 178 pages, May 2005; “Promotion of Artisan Crafts toward Creation ofWealth and Reducing Poverty”, submitted to Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture(IRCICA), International Congress on Islamic Arts and Crafts, Isfahan, October 2002;“Development Strategies for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)”, Gulf Organization forIndustrial Consulting (GOIC), May 2001. Among his presented lectures: “Japanese Experience inSME development and Investment Promotion”, February 2001, Tripoli, Libya; “DevelopmentPotential for Vietnamese Artisan Crafts”, March 2001, Ninh Binh Viet Nam; and “TraditionalCraft Development in Lao PDR”, November 2002, Vientiane, Lao PDR.26
educational program from three dimensions and lays down specific s evaluation guidelines.Evaluation for designing a living is a critical activityand is an integral function of hometowndesigners in their task. Learning the various features of evaluation is an indispensableskill thatshould be nurtured by such a specialist.The paper clearly specifies thekey areas and guidelines for designing a living, implementationand evaluation of children’s up-bringingg programs in restoring traditional playground withtraditional bambooo craft making. The paper strongly advocates the importance of the entiredesign process for children’s education.These guidelines may be of valuee for those who areassociated with preservation of traditionall culture and arts and crafts c such as policy makers ofthe regional and national governments ass well as the scholars who could mobilize universitystudentss for children’s educational programs in inheritance of traditional values andculturalactivities.The photos below show the feature of the program as an easy reference:Learning Bambooo as aDrawing Wishes forCutting Bamboo into MakingBambooValuableTraditionalTraditional SatoyamaPieces with a Help of CraftsandResourceRestorationParentsExhibitingKeywords:Hometown Designer for Children’sEducation, Restoration of a TraditionalPlayground, Bamboo Crafts, Sustainabiliity, Evaluation on Designing a Living for Children’sEducationHandicraft centers as a tool for revitalizing the t traditional artifactsindustry - The Fayoum Handicraft Network Initiative: I : An EgyptianExperience, Mohamed Elkhatib 4FayoumOasis in Egypt offers a glimpse into traditional Egyptian rural lifee style with rich andcomplexethnic cultural groups includingg farmers, Bedouins, and fishermen living together inthe same region. This combination of local lifestyles has its related types of products andactivities such as: Cultural tours that may combinethe following type of activities: poetry,4Architect and Environmental planner. M.Sc.in environmental planning p from Cairo University.Founder and Managing Director of Environmental Design Groupp EDG, Egypt. Chairman of theScientific Institution for Environment and Development since 2006. Founder and Vice Presidentof Aquatech Company for tourism andd urban development S.A.E since 1997. Member of theconsulting committee for preparation of the strategic vision for Cairo C 2050, GOPP (September 08– present). Member of theNational Scientific Committee of UNISCO for preparation thedocuments of Gebel Qatrani to be nominated as an World Heritage Site (August 05 – August 06).Senior planner of the site management plan for the Pyramids Plateau, the archaeological area ofGizapyramids, Sphinx, andthe surrounded tombs, Ministry of culture, Supreme council ofAntiquities, Egypt 2002. Mr. El Khatib has Over 24years of professional experience in the fieldof vernacular architecture, ecotourism, and environmental planning. He hass worked extensivelyfor both public and private sector organizations local Egyptian and international agencies (USAID- GTZ - UNDP – Netherlands embassy – Italian Cooperation -DANIDA -EEAA - TDA).27