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- All Subjects: Design innovation
- Creators: Chhetri, Nalini
The literature review examines three topics: (1) ethnic identity and craft; (2) northern Thailand and hill tribes; and (3) design thinking, vulnerability, and resilience.
Empirical research was conducted with hill tribe craftspeople in northern Thailand. Seven types of capital—human, social, natural, physical, financial, cultural, and emotional capital—were identified through interviews and observation. Those types of capital indicated what the craftspeople wanted and needed.
The key findings were as follows: First, social capital has a close relationship with both human capital and emotional capital, indicating that for craftspeople, networks and membership ensure knowledge and increase connections with friends and family. Secondly, emotional capital is affected by financial capital. Financial capital refers to the monetary resources used to achieve craftspeople’s livelihood objectives. The craftspeople required high order volumes to earn to more money and thus improve their economic condition; they experienced more stress when order volumes were low. Third, financial capital is not related to social and cultural capital. Graphs implied certain relationship among them, with the reasons varying depending on the individual craftsperson’s environment. A high level of social and cultural capital does not affect low financial capital, and vice versa. Finally, cultural capital directly influences emotional capital because the happiness of hill tribe craftspeople is related to their identity and dignity as craftspeople.
Shade plays an important role in designing pedestrian-friendly outdoor spaces in hot desert cities. This study investigates the impact of photovoltaic canopy shade and tree shade on thermal comfort through meteorological observations and field surveys at a pedestrian mall on Arizona State University's Tempe campus. During the course of 1 year, on selected clear calm days representative of each season, we conducted hourly meteorological transects from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and surveyed 1284 people about their thermal perception, comfort, and preferences. Shade lowered thermal sensation votes by approximately 1 point on a semantic differential 9-point scale, increasing thermal comfort in all seasons except winter. Shade type (tree or solar canopy) did not significantly impact perceived comfort, suggesting that artificial and natural shades are equally efficient in hot dry climates. Globe temperature explained 51 % of the variance in thermal sensation votes and was the only statistically significant meteorological predictor. Important non-meteorological factors included adaptation, thermal comfort vote, thermal preference, gender, season, and time of day. A regression of subjective thermal sensation on physiological equivalent temperature yielded a neutral temperature of 28.6 °C. The acceptable comfort range was 19.1 °C-38.1 °C with a preferred temperature of 20.8 °C. Respondents exposed to above neutral temperature felt more comfortable if they had been in air-conditioning 5 min prior to the survey, indicating a lagged response to outdoor conditions. Our study highlights the importance of active solar access management in hot urban areas to reduce thermal stress.