- Put it on the table.
- Observe it for a while.
- Take it apart, not as if you would disassemble a machine,
but rather as if you would dissect an organism.
- Spread all parts and components on the table.
- Try to distinguish ‘cells’ from ‘organs’ and ‘systems’.
- Try to understand the interdependency between the different ‘organ systems’ that, as a whole,
allow the object to perform its task.
- Reconsider the organism. Try to identify the ‘breeding grounds’, ‘multiplication rates’, ‘spreading patterns’ and ‘lifespan’ of your kitchen appliance.
- Link up these estimates with the context in which your kitchen appliance emerged. Hereby consider labor costs, availability of energy and material, modes of production, communication tools and social organization.
- Try to understand the interrelations between the appearance of your kitchen appliance and its context.
- Go to your computer, google your kitchen appliance and dig up three very different versions of your appliance from a near or distant past.
- Again, try to understand the interrelations between the appearance of each object in relation to its context.
- Step back and reflect.
- Now, filter out the patterns, the reoccurring design principles that you identified as successful in the past and valuable for the future.
- Number and list them.
- Sketch up / prototype a new design for this kitchen appliance in which you apply these principles within a contemporary context.
- Piece your own kitchen appliance together and take it back home.