The Application of Digital Technology in the Furniture Design and Education Reform

The Application of Digital Technology in the Furniture Design
and Education Reform
Introduction:
Furniture Design is devoted to harmonious development between man and nature. With the introduction of
contemporary suitable scientific technology, as the "art of science", furniture design is bound to enter a
new stage of development.
Nowadays, digital technology has been widely used in the world and various industries. Using the process
that digital technology has boost the development of interior architecture industry as links, this
presentation expounds the application object, function and basic operating software of digital technology
in the furniture design courses which triggered the current situation of interior architecture education in the
age of new technology and new ways of communication.

Table of Contents
1. Educational Philosophy Statement
2. The Context
3. Design for Learning
4. Teaching Practice and Digital Tools (Methodology, Strategies, Objectives)
5. Description of Course Materials (Syllabi, Handouts, Assignments)
6. Digital Tools and Products of Teaching (Evidence of Student Learning)
7. Conclusions and Future Digital Teaching Goals

1. EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT
As a full-time academic as well as a practicing interior designer, I am keenly aware of the necessity to
establish theoretical and intellectual underpinnings to support the technical foundations of the
interior design lecturer profession. It is in the academic arena that such theoretical underpinnings must be
most rigorously promulgated, and the true test of theoretical architectural ideas occurs when these ideas are
able to be realized in built form. My charge as an academic is to encourage students to:
• investigate, to experiment and to develop a personal position in response to theoretical design enquiries;
• engage the requirements of habitation without diminishing the strength of conceptual and
theoretical intentions;
• establish meaningful language and effective dialogues between architectural elements;
• and most importantly, challenge theoretical issues that carry relevance beyond the individual to the
collective, beyond the collective to the universal.
Architecture is fundamentally a three-dimensional discipline, and in teaching students to conceptualize
three-dimensional design using two-dimensional tools of expression, I conscientiously analyze how
each particular student envisions form and space. I also encourage students to challenge Architecture to
move beyond traditional three-dimensional form, deriving the essence of architectural design from

intimate sensitivity to the human condition, issues of identity, and experiences distinctive to a cultural
context.
I believe that teaching should simultaneously encourage the production of highly innovative
professional calibre work from students, promote students’ future careers through community
exposure, and promote the university and its scholarly work within the wider community. In this regard, I
critically challenge students to identify themselves as representatives of “the new generation of
designers” through design research.
Most importantly, I use research to introduce students to diverse means by which the boundaries of
architectural design can be actively challenged to lead toward innovative design response. I teach them to
actively reflect upon periods when social change was most pronounced and to consider how the arts
have historically been responsive to such change. Dramatic technological advancements or shifting
political and economic climates have always been paralleled by innovative responses in painting,
sculpture, dance, film, and literature. Yet Architecture often lags far behind, being very late to interpret
major social transformations to which other art forms rapidly respond. I encourage students to understand
the importance of addressing contemporary social conditions as a means of discovering new avenues of
expression, as well as a means of appropriately addressing the needs of contemporary society. And
when students become cognisant that other art forms often find new means of expression in response to
social change far earlier than Architecture, they learn to draw from these art forms in establishing
new and meaningful directions for architectural design expression.

Equally important within my educational philosophy is a fundamental commitment to Asia-Pacific
regional issues. My architectural research for the past five years has involved in-depth analysis of
symbolism and narrative in traditional and contemporary architecture across Southeast Asia and the
Indian subcontinent. I believe that the future lies not in western design overwhelming the east,
but rather in the west fully understanding, engaging and incorporating eastern sensitivities into its
own design.
2. THE CONTEX
Since 2012 when I first entered Raffles Education Corporation, my teaching and research outputs
have led to advancement in four years from Lecturer, to Senior Lecturer, to the highest step on the Reader
/ Associate Professor scale, as well as leadership positions including Deputy Head of School,
Academic Director of Vietnam Design Institute, and member of the Senior Executive Committee. While
maintaining one of the highest number of teaching contact hours per term in the Faculty of Industrial Fine
Arts (FIFA), Ton Duc Thang University, I have made significant contributions to rebuilding the entire
Interior Design curriculum as an integrated programme based on strong international models.

Figure 1.1 Teaching Practice. Chronological Chart

3. DESIGN FOR LEARNING
My teaching has had a unique impact on encouraging and producing professional calibre work from
students, promoting students’ future careers through community exposure, and promoting TDT University
academic work within the wider community of Vietnam.
In period 2015/16 as a Furniture Design Lecturer at TDT and Van Lang University, I supervised Interior
Design students for local furniture design competition “Hoa Mai Award” organized by Handicraft and
Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA). My effort was awarded with participation as a
jury member. The main goal was to build a base for the development of the Vietnamese design industry.
20 selected proposals were produced as prototypes and exhibited at International Furniture Fair
Singapore/ASEAN Furniture Show (IFFS/AFS) 2016.
I fully understand that each new generation of students may require a different “point of entry” relating to
their own unique learning styles. I spend a great deal of time coming to know the students in order to
successfully adapt my methods of teaching, and I evolve my assignments
each year in response to each new generation of students’ needs. Most importantly, I assign projects
that expressly require my students to acknowledge their own generation as a unique and persuasive
contributor to contemporary design culture. Throughout this portfolio, I will share some of the works of
my students in affirmation of the success of my objectives.

4. TEACHING PRACTICE AND DIGITAL TOOLS
In this section I will document my teaching duties and usage of new digital tools in furniture design during
my stay in Viet Nam and present experience at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. This section covers:
● Furniture Design Course I have taught and supervised.
● Digital Software and Tools used
● Materials I have prepared for courses.
● Assessments of student work.
● Evidences of development of student digital teaching skills.
Digital design is the whole process of furniture and design based on digital platforms, rely on computer
computing power and graphical capabilities, scientific analysis and evaluation of usage, rational
construction objective and rigorous logic design, increase the designer to deal with complex construction
and the design and problem solving ability of creativity, and with more experience and design medium of
expression of authenticity, eventually produce both science and art, the social value of furniture design.
Based on my teaching experience gained in recent years, the new digital technology has greatly helped to
significantly reduce the design process and contribute to the quality of the final product. In our case:
furniture.
By analyzing the behavior of students and their habits I came to the conclusion that the new generation of
students have great possibilities of multiplication of tasks as well as parallel work on multiple tasks at the

same time. Including, of course, their presence on the social networks, which is certainly an essential part
of today's life.
Of course, this was conditioned by my adaptation to a new way of functioning of higher education, and re-
formulating my teaching methods. What was the main reason to allow the use of mobile phones in
classrooms already in 2014. It should also be noted that visual skills are most needed in the higher
education of young designers.
Most used digital tools during furniture design courses in 2018
Purpose Tool Usage % of usage
1 Image Capturing Tools Smartphone camera
Screenshot
Rendering tools
Offline 100%
80%
90%
2 Visual Tools
Searching machines
and Image Data Sharing
Google Chrome
Pinterest
Google Photos (sharing)
Google Drive
Dropbox
Online 90%
70%
60%
70%
40%
3 Distribution of Teaching Material Moodle
Edublogs by Wordpress
Slideshare
Prezi
School Mail
Online 90%
40%
40%
40%
100%

4 Communication What’s Up
Social Platforms (Facebook)
SMS
Online 80%
90%
20%
5 Design Software AutoCAD
Revit
3Ds Max
SketchUp
SolidWorks
Offline 90%
20%
70%
90%
30%
Figure 4.1 Chart of most used digital tools in furniture design courses in period 2014-2018
Furniture Design Education Methods of Digital Technology
Traditional furniture design emphasizes the role of experience, and the design process is based on the
perception, so in the research of teaching and practice also mostly uses qualitative method. From the point
of professional development and connotation, in modern furniture design, the usage of natural material is
important, and the objective law of human factors is followed, which is also characterized by social culture
and human psychology. Due to the multiple target objects in the furniture design are usually needed
through scientific quantitative method for analysis and research, and the traditional teaching method has
been unable to meet the requirements of modern landscape architecture.
Quantitative methods help furniture designers to implement the scientific development. In the late 1940s
and the early 1950s, the third technological revolution marked the beginning of the human society into the
information age, namely digital age. Digital technology and computer develop together, which also have a

profound impact on the furniture industry and education. The development of modern digital technology,
whether it is the progress of software or hardware, all auxiliary the change of furniture design from sense
to perception, from qualitative to quantitative.
Digital technology application in furniture design is mainly manifested in the following five aspects: data
acquisition and measurement, data analysis and evaluation, digital generation and construction, virtual
reality and production. It almost covers the whole process from design, construction and production. Using
Internet technology for research and sharing ergonomic data in furniture design courses has become one of
the important references in higher education. These scientific data has become the important information
and the basis of early stage design which must be considered when designing furniture. The objective data
are accumulated for further expanding the design work.

Figure 5.1. Design process in the course Furniture design & Processing.

5. DESCRIPTION OF COURSE MATERIALS
Furniture Design course is a complex and long process consisting of several stages. From generating the
idea, creating work models to the final project and presentation of the prototype, which is in the scale of 1:
1. The process is initially based on making freehand sketches. But after ten days, students begin
developing the main idea in the software. The research process also relies on traditional methods, but of
course the Internet. The last phase is focused on making furniture. And digital techniques come to the fore.
Furniture Design to Build Digital and Generated Digital generation and construction include the using
digital technology to design and build. Parametric design method is an important part in the process of
digital design. At present, the 3D printing technology, the contour process, numerical control processing
and so on as the construction method to design obtain more and more widespread application. Digital flow
makes the design and building, construction and other processes more closely linked. In furniture
construction sectors, mechanical control technology which based on the three-dimensional system.
Through inputting three-dimensional model which has been designed into the construction machinery
terminal can achieve the full automation of the material, not only saving the manpower and material
resources, improving efficiency of construction, but also very accurate and quickly. Changes in
construction techniques from the other side promote the development and changes of furniture design,
which is reflected in the whole process from design thinking to design expression, input to output.

Figure 5.1. Weekly planner for the Furniture design & Processing Course.

Figure 5.2. Sample of Assignment Brief for the Furniture design & Processing Course

Figure 5.3 Midterm field trip to furniture company ‘District Seven’.

Figure 5.4 Midterm field trip to company ‘HAFELE’ and ‘WOOD’Y’.

Figure 5.6 Sample of student furniture model in scale 1:5

Figure 5.9 Preparation for the Final Jury

Traditional Furniture Design Education and the Plight of Digital Tecnology Integration
Discipline meaning of modern furniture design has been extended to urban areas, ecological zones and
infrastructure. In the social background of the new ecological civilization and the information age,
furniture design will have to face an increasingly complex and dynamic environment ecological system
and usage of traditional materials. The furniture design process should also possess perception,
interconnected and intelligent at the front end, establishing the dynamic feedback mechanism that can
realize seamless docking. In this regard, numerous methods are used in communicating with students,
sending information and exchanging written material. Especially books in PDF format.
During my work at universities in Viet Nam, as well as at present in Turkey, I have used two platforms.
Edublogs, in the case when the universities did not have their official platform. For the past two years, I
have been using the Moodle platform, which I consider to be the most developed for the needs of almost
all subjects.
Edublogs is WordPress platform created for entire schools, district, college or university. Its allowed
numerous activities such as:
 Create Students. Invite or create a student account in just minutes.
 Moderate Content. Approve all student posts and comments.
 Privacy Control. Many options to make blogs private or public.
 Private Comments. Leave private comments on student writing
 Group Students. Organize students in groups and lists
 Activity Reports. Monitor progress with detailed user reports.

Second very important digital teaching tool is Moodle interactive platform. Instructors can:
• Browse the content of courses, even when offline.
• Receive instant notifications of messages and other events.
• Quickly find and contact other people in courses.
• Upload images, audio, videos and other files from mobile devices.
• Track progress, mark tasks as complete and browse learning plans.
• Attempt quizzes, post in forums and edit wiki pages.
• View course grades.
Benefit for both, students and instructors, are also keeping up to date with calendar events. Site, course and
user events can be viewed in the calendar. Calendar events can now be viewed offline and infinite scrolling
is available. And also very suitable for sending notifications & Messages.

Most colleges and universities are still in the low end of the computer aided drawing. Because of the lack
of scientific evaluation standards and operation process as a whole, the design teaching can only stay in the
subjective emotional level, laying particular emphasis on form despising science, laying particular
emphasis on design despising planning, laying particular emphasis on description despising evaluation.
There are several reasons:
1) Lack of Demand
Construction units measure the pros and cons of standard design still remain in the visual sensory level,
coupled with the cultivation strategy of design education in colleges and universities laying particular on
traditional drawing performance and auxiliary software rendering caused by large domestic construction,
design and construction of the tight schedule, profession simple collaborative model in the process of
automatization especially in furniture production.
2) Weak Platform
Weak industry makes digital furniture design platform weak. Due to the lack of users, the majority of
domestic and foreign software developers are only concerned with the field of architecture application
software, digital design software in the field of product very rare. There are many functional defects that
are unable to meet the needs of the industry when directly use software platform of relevant industry. And
the industry is lack of specialized technical force its transformation to enhance its applicability.

3) Lack of Talents
Due to the neglect of the digital design for a long time, the digital design of furniture is lagging behind,
and the talents are scarce. The teacher proportion who master digital theory and operation of product
design generally in colleges is not high, and it is difficult to achieve the teaching of digital technology.
Digital design needs interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, multi-types of cooperation. The closure of discipline
leads to the lack of interdisciplinary communication, and the other subjects are unable to cooperate
because of strange. It can't help to build a digital design system and develop related software or cooperate
with local furniture companies and design work.

Figure 7.1 Finale jury presentation. TDT University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam Summer 2015

7. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIGITAL TEACHING GOALS
In the beginning my primary goal was to offer fundamental interior design training and to encourage
students to discover, analyze, and solve the problems independently. As an instructor, I was worked hard
to gain the success of my courses and program. It is interesting to see the level of improvement from start
to finish. If you look at projects at the sophomore level and set them side-by-side with senior-level projects
-- that is how you can gauge success. The change is mind blowing. How students grow in that short time
defines if a program is great or not.
Some challenges are typically associated with technical instruction and program. There are two sides. One
area is hands-on skill sets. Students will build models, draft by hand, and mark up renderings -- there is a
lot of technical instruction teaching students how to craft with their hands. The second part is the computer
programs and digital skills that are critical to our industry and critical for students to advance and excel in.
They have to learn those technical skills, and they are skills that they can infuse with their own creativity
once they get a grasp on their technical ability.
Teaching strategies are very important to help student’s difficulties in concepts or subjects. I feel very
strongly that people learn through repeating a process over and over. When I teach the process of design, I
try to break it down into methods they can approach with a step-by-step solution, so they have a chance to
practice the same five or six steps applied to the same problem.

During the last few years, Interior Design has experienced a rapid evolution. From a focus on sustainability
to an increased reliance on technology to a growing demand for enhanced professionalism, Interior Design
continues to progress despite bleak economic forces that seemed primed to stunt such growth. But
considering that the heart of the profession is education, Interior Design programs at colleges are still not
effective.
Today’s students often have a different approach and attitude toward technology, with an expectation of
quickly acquired knowledge. At times, however, fast pace can threaten deep knowledge and critical
thinking. Therefore, it is our responsibility to instill value of in-depth knowledge in learners, as this is a
key to complex problem-solving that today’s challenges require. Technology, in fact, can make deep
knowledge acquisition very possible, if we take steps to direct it to do so.
A defining factor of Interior Design education in 2018 is the integration of technology. Digital technology
has served as a significant catalyst for changing how educators and students not only share knowledge, but
also how students think about design and how they communicate design ideas.
The next evolution on the technology front may be online Interior Design education. A lot of Universities
recently launched an online Interior Design bachelor’s degree program, and many educators expect more
schools to follow suit in the near future. Given current students’ need for flexibility in their schedules and
their deep understanding of technology and mobile devices, online education is an inevitable part of the
future of Interior Design. We’re still in a time of transition. Many Interior Design education programs are
still evaluating the best methods of delivering the various components of design knowledge through online

learning. There are opportunities for online hybrid approaches, where students could choose to take certain
courses online while taking others in a physical setting.
This focus on collaboration and integration is helping produce Interior Design graduates who are able to
see the big picture.
Students should be able to experiment with likes and dislikes and to realize their strengths and weaknesses.
After this base is developed, the curriculum can be molded to tie in each student’s learning style. I want to
teach students in a way that has some straightforward instruction, but that also gives students room to grow
and expand on their own. At the beginning of the year, it is understandable for the teacher to lead class
discussions, but towards the end of the year, students will pose their own questions and try to answer them
independently. I feel it is beneficial for students to sometimes work for the answer rather than being told
because it stretches their knowledge and teaches them how to find information in a variety of ways. I also
feel a key to success is for the class to work on projects to help others. As an educator, it is important not
only to help the students that you are teaching, but also give them direction to help others.
As a Interior Design educator, it is critical to remember to enjoy students and everything they have to
offer. Sometimes it can be a struggle, but if something goes wrong, there is always a way to fix the
problem. No matter what, there is always the power to make change.

The Application of Digital Technology in the Furniture Design and Education Reform

The Application of Digital Technology in the Furniture Design and Education Reform

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