Museo Passangrahan

Designing for the Cultural Heritage of Bonaire

Master thesis (2017)

Authors

Z.C. Chin-On Industrial Design Engineering

Contributors

A.P.O.S. Vermeeren (supervisor 1)
S Celik (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Industrial Design Engineering
Copyright: © 2017 Ziran Chin-On
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Published Date

27-09-2017

Language

English

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Faculty

Industrial Design Engineering

Abstract

In 2014, the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management Foundation (NAAM) was commissioned by the Bonairean government (OLB) to realize a permanent museum exhibition on the ground floor of the Passanggrahan building. The exhibition is to be based on the (historic) city center of Kralendijk. Being that the realization of this museum is still in its beginning stages, the opportunity arose to create a proposal for said museum from an interaction designer’s perspective in cooperation with the MuseumFutures Graduation Lab of the TU Delft. The aim of this project is to design this museum from a bottom-up approach, starting with a better understanding of the Bonairean context and community.

Research Objectives
In exploring the realm of the “museum of the future”, it is crucial to understand the more abstract concepts like culture, heritage and relevance, because these concepts directly relate to the values of the community, which should be reflected in the values of institutions. Yet more often than not, as design engineers, the digital and the interactive take the focus of this new frontier. With this in mind, the aim of this research is to gain insights on the needs and concerns of the Bonairean community regarding cultural heritage. These insights form the basis for the design statement of a new museum concept.

Research questions
In line with the objective of this thesis, the following research
questions have been formulated:
1. What role, regarding cultural heritage, should/could the museum play in the Bonairean community?
2. How to make cultural heritage relevant to the Bonairean youth?

Sub questions:
• What is cultural heritage and how do you design for it?
• What do Bonaireans want and need in a museum?
• What can be learned from existing heritage institutions on Bonaire?

Approach
Literature research as well as context observations and interviews with key figures in cultural heritage management and social events on Bonaire formed the foundation for answering the main research questions. Nina Simon’s work on participation and relevance (Simon, 2010; Simon, 2016) helped structure the approach in addressing participation and the youth aspect of this project.
Additionally, other documents in legislation and policy regarding heritage management (Eilandsraad Bonaire, 2010) and cultural development (De Geus, 2016), as well as architectural views on tangible heritage (Meurs, 2016), shed light on an ethical approach to designing for cultural heritage.

These insights helped formulate the problem definition and design statement that formed the base for the ideation and conceptualisation phase.

As a method for evaluation of the final concept, the ‘Cards for Culture: Museum Edition’ toolkit was utilised. This gave insight into responsibilities of different stakeholders in implementing this museum concept.

Concluding this report, i adress the original research objectives and give an example as to how the concept could be implemented. Throughout this project, in the research phase and the resulting final concept, the concept of a bottom-up approach was integral.