Convivial Making as Knowledge in Design

Paper Abstract: As global chains proliferate, there is a sense of homogenization in every place we go. Yet, some bubbles remain, that retain a sense of place in a holistic way. Without quaintness, but as an ecosystem where all elements balance with a decent kind of harmony. There is a lot to be learned from these surviving ‘bubbles’ in terms of design and sustainability. Mandvi, a small port town in India, is one such survivor. Mandvi is home to a ship-building industry that lives within the still surviving 400-year-old ecosystem of commerce, craft and community. This industry demonstrates a making that is convivial, that can teach us to reexamine our relationship to work, the relationship between craft and design, information and implicit knowledge and convivial hierarchies in skill and know-how. Can older ways of knowing and making offer us another paradigm and show us an alternative way forward?