Design and digital manufacturing concepts applied to a
digital inclusion program for young people in the outskirts
of Guarulhos, in Brazil
Alex Garcia Juliana Henno
Architect Guarulhos City Hall School of Communications
So Paulo, SP and Arts,University of So Paulo
digitalsocialfab@gmail.com So Paulo, SP
julianahenno@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of a digital inclusion project
developed by Fab Social, which has as its main objective to
develop basic design skills among low-income young students,
promoting the access to open source software tools and digital
manufacturing processes. Using software with simplified
interfaces it was possible for the participants to explore design
concepts while modeling and fabricating their own chair models.
The project was conducted in two phases: the first in 2013 and the
second in 2014, both of them open to the community living in the
periphery of the city of Guarulhos, State of So Paulo, Brazil.
Applying an exploratory approach, the study starts with the
assumption that young lay people can benefit from the access to
technologies while engaging in the activity of creating their own
models to materialize their ideas. Results obtained by the
participants indicate a clear improvement in the application of
design concepts to represent objects graphically. Researchers
expect that these activities may also serve as an interesting subject
for debate on the role of graphic representation for a non-
specialized public of low-income communities.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
K.3 [Computers and education ] K.3.0 General
General Terms
Design, Experimentation.
Keywords
Digital inclusion, CAD-CAM, Young people, Furniture model,
Design concepts, Open source software.
1. INTRODUCTION
The regulatory framework for the digital inclusion in Brazil
started in 2000 with the publication of the book Livro Verde da
Sociedade da Informao (Green Book of the Information
Society) by the Ministry of Science and Technology [1]. The
document presents the foundations of a national broaden
strategic project for the integration and coordination of the
development and the use of advanced computing, communication
and information services, and their application in the society.
One of the instruments created from this program were the so-
called Telecentros (Tele-centers), freely accessible public spaces
equipped with computers connected to the Internet. The purpose
of such Telecentros is to make the information technology more
popular through installations that provide electronic
communication services to less favored economic classes, in
particular in the peripheral area of major urban centers or further
Paulo Eduardo Andr Leme Fleury
Fonseca de Campos University of So Paulo
University of So Paulo So Paulo, SP
So Paulo, SP alfleury@usp.br
pfonseca@usp.br
more distant areas. In Guarulhos, a city located in the
metropolitan area of So Paulo, the digital inclusion project is
coordinated by the Department of Computer Sciences and
Telecommunications, which defines this project as Telecidadania
(Tele-citizenship). The project started in 2008, and currently there
are twenty-eight active centers throughout the city of Guarulhos.
The Fab Social project stands out in this context of digital
inclusion, as it complements the required infrastructure of the
Telecidadania using digital fabrication and access to open source
software tools to promote various activities. The Fab Social
project is itinerant and happens throughout the year in eight
Telecidadanias located in the CEUs (Unified Education Centers),
educational, sports and cultural complexes characterized as
multiple public spaces available for after school hours in the
outskirts of the city of Guarulhos.
Like most activities that deal with young people learning through
the use of computers, the Fab Social project dialogues with the
legacy of Papert by the assumption that young people "will do
best by finding (`fishing) for themselves the specific knowledge
they need" [2]. However, while most of the activities that follow
this theoretical basis are designed to teach young people how to
code, this paper addresses the development of the youths own
graphical language using computers and machines while applying
basic design concepts. According to Papert, constructionism
scores teach how to program the computer and think about how to
develop a complex project that is like teaching the children how
to catch [a] fish". On the other hand, Fab Social after school
hours, proposes an experience in the field of furniture design in
order to provide an immersion in its basic concepts mediated by
digital design and manufacturing (CAD-CAM) process intended
for the development of the participants graphic language. To
Gershenfeld [3] the digital manufacturing revolution allows
people to go beyond the virtual environment limits and start
designing and producing objects for the real world.
One of the first ties between the structure of a digital fabrication
laboratory and basic education is deemed to have occurred in
2001 in an experiment between the Technological Institute of
Costa Rica (TEC) and the Grassroots Invention Group's / Media
Lab MIT. The experiment was coordinated by the MITs
physicist and researcher at Bakhtiar Mikhak. During an action in
schools of the rural area of Costa Rica, students from TEC, with
the support of the newly opened Fab Lab Costa Rica (LuTec
Luthiers of Technology), developed educational tutoring
prototypes for teaching subjects such as Chemistry and Physics to
high school students of those regions [4]. In the Brazilian setting,
the project A cidade que a gente quer (The city that we want) a
pioneering and innovative experience in the education field took
place in the city of So Paulo between 2001 and 2004. The
project had as partners the Municipal Education Department of
So Paulo (SME-SP), the MIT Media Lab and the Integrated
Systems Lab of the Polytechnic School of the University of So
Paulo (LSI-EPUSP) [5]. The project was carried out in public
schools of So Paulo and the participants sketched and built
models of how they would like to improve the quality of life in
their cities using, for that purpose, some electronic equipment
such as a microcontroller board (GoGo Board), low-cost materials
and scraps [6]. In a brief analysis of those activities, there is an
enhancement of concepts pertaining to engineering fields by
means of a design activity. Despite the expectations of those
activities to emphasize design by looking at the context of the
learning as an action, this paper points out that the processes
related to the act of design are not limited to manipulation
technologies or the parameters from Science, Arts or even
Mathematics. According to Jones [7] the activity of design should
not be mistaken for Art, Science or Mathematics, but it should be
considered as a hybrid activity that depends on its successful
execution, an appropriate mix of all three unidentified with any of
them. So, design is an activity whose purpose is to establish a
multi-faceted set of qualities in objects, processes, services and
systems in the whole life cycle. Thus, the design is the central
factor of innovation and humanization of technologies and a
crucial factor of economic and cultural exchange [8]. Therefore,
the Fab Social project discussed here and focused on the furniture
design theme, is based on design and digital manufacturing for the
development of concepts following the thought from Archer [9]:
"The ability of the human being to picture
things in the minds eye; the ability to
comprehend the three dimensional
configuration of something, even when it is
seen from only one viewpoint; the ability to
perceive order, pattern, connectivity and
causation in complex things or systems; the
ability to conceive of a construction or
arrangement that will meet a need; the ability
to invent, and imagine in the minds eye,
something which does not yet exist; the ability
to capture such a cognitive model, analyse it,
and externalise it through drawings, models,
notation or language so as to bring it to
realisation or test: such abilities are common
to all human beings, in at least some
measure. (p. 8)
From this perspective, design could not be a conceptual correlate
of technology. For Cross [10], design would be a part of
everyones education, in the same way that the sciences and the
humanities are parts of everyones education 1. Cross [10] stressed
that the difference between specialist education and general
education lies in non-technical and non-vocational general
education, only in this way design can achieve parity with other
disciplines in general education. According to Archer [11], the
basic structure of project language would be the modeling, in
other words, the act of modeling constitutes the design language.
Similarly to Cross [10] and Archer [11], Bonsiepe [12] finds a
clear distinction between the ways of thinking about design and
the way of thinking about Science, for, as the author said, sciences
see the world through the cognition perspective and, on the other
hand, design disciplines through the project perspective.
1. Such an approach underlies the discussion about the integration of
Design as a subject in the National Curriculum in England in 2013.
(The National Curriculum in England Key Stages 1 and 2 Framework
Document at <http://bit.ly/1ciqczZ>.)
2. MODELING AND DIGITAL
MANUFACTURING OF A CHAIR MODEL
The activities described here took place in the Telecidadanias
located in different CEUs, in the periphery of the city of
Guarulhos. Those activities are part of the Fab Social project,
coordinated by one of the researchers, the architect Alex Garcia.
They were developed throughout 2013 and 2014, and they were
attended by 69 young people, between the ages of 6 and 12.
Amongst the participants 68% were boys and 32% were girls. As
a digital inclusion project, all activities were carried out within a
safe, accessible, secure and child-friendly learning context. The
activities were freely accessible and intended to introduce the
participants to open source software tools and digital
manufacturing processes while acquainting design concepts. This
approach is developed by providing playful activities through a
simplified interface with no need of any sort of previous
knowledge of computers by the participants.
2.1. Software Tools
The computers used by Fab Social were running the open source
software tools Sketchchair and Inkscape. The Sketchchair
software has a very simple interface which allows a layperson to
operate it so as to design and virtually simulate the stability of a
chair in a bi and/or tridimensional environment. The Inkscape
software was also used by the students to make the nesting
process of the chair parts. The use of the open source software
ensured that there were no barriers to teaching CAD-CAM in an
environment of accessible and free software.
2.2. Design Challenge
In this activity, consisting of redrawing a utilitarian and functional
design object, the participants were expected to get into contact
with the basic principles of the design field. With the help of the
Sketchchair modeling software, the participants were able to
project their models, taking into account design concepts such as:
proportionality, constructability, ergonomics, functionality and
aesthetics. After handling and understanding the tools, the
participants should design several models and choose only the
satisfactory one to be manufactured in a portable milling or cutter
machine. This process of choosing a solution which synthesizes
the chair design problem is described by Cross [10] as the central
feature of the designers activity, which differs from the scientists
activity, for example. The author also suggests that the elementary
difference between a scientist and a designer in the problem
solving process is that the designer tends to synthesize the
problem in a short period of time, whereas the scientist tends to
analyze the problem, searching for an elementary rule.
Thus, the participants were intended to get into contact with the
basic design principles by manufacturing a customized chair
model through a project that used the CAD-CAM learning
environment. That project comprised two phases that differed by
their different approach strategies to collect data from the
participants. The first (2013), as a pilot experience, assessed the
results of the activity by means of a simple questionnaire that
could not measure whether the participants graphical
representation had really improved. The second (2014), a revised
version of the same activity, used a different strategy of evaluation
based on the participant's drawing by hand.
2.3. 1st Phase (2013) - Pilot Project
The first phase of the project took place between March and June
2013, and it was carried out in five sessions that provided an
expositive (videos and projection of examples) and interactive
(individual guidance) approach. The 30 participants, between the
ages of 6 and 12, were first introduced to different furniture
projects produced by digital fabrication laboratories. After that
contextual introduction, the participants were made acquainted
with the Sketch Chair software graphic interface. This software
has two interfaces, a basic and an expert one; they worked with
the basic one, which is simpler for a first approach. Once
familiarized with all the software commands, the participants tried
different shapes and possibilities since it was possible to visualize
the changes of parameters and a graphical visualization
simultaneously. As the young participants were creating their
models, they were instructed in some basic concepts in the
development of a chair, such as: proportionality, constructability
and ergonomics. The different chair designs made by each
participant resemble the idea, of the design field, according to
which there are several answers for a single problem. After each
of them selected the one chair that they wanted to materialize and
turn into a model, they saved the digital file and sent it to the
instructor. The digital files were interpreted by a portable CNC
milling machine that milled the two dimensional parts of the chair
out of a 3mm MDF board. After all the parts were milled, the
participants assembled them to have the final model of their
customized chair. According to the data assessed through a
questionnaire handled to the participants at the end of the activity,
it was possible to observe that the challenge given to the students
was faced with their own efforts, and the interest in producing
their own design with the use of digital manufacturing.
Figure 1. Sequence of steps taken by one of the participants in the
first phase of the furniture model activity.
2.4. 2nd Phase (2014) - Revised Project
The second phase was comprised in 5 sessions that were
distributed from January to March, 2014. Thirty-nine participants
between the ages of 6 and 12 attended this activity which had a
different approach, although it kept the same design challenge of
building a chair model. The first session began with a
presentation, showing basic design aspects, e.g. colors, shapes and
functionalities. They were then instructed to draw a chair by hand
and not to forget to write their names and the date on the paper.
The second session followed the same characteristics of the first
phase (2013), when the participants were introduced to the
Sketchchair software interface. The third session was dedicated to
the creation of different chairs while trying and exploring different
parameters. At one point each participant had to choose one chair
amongst the options he/she had developed, based on their
personal criteria. The file was then opened in the Inkscape
software by the participants and in that stage it was possible for
them to reorder the parts in a nesting process. In the fourth session
it was possible to cut each participants chair shapes using a
vinyl cutter out of 250 g/m2 cardboard paper. The instructor
helped saving the files in the participants computer and sending
them to the computer connected to the machine. Some minor
changes were made in few files in order to prepare the file for the
cutting step, and those changes were also made by the instructor.
After all chair parts were cut, each participant started assembling
his/her own personalized chair model. In the fifth and last session,
each participant was asked to draw a chair by hand. There was a
remarkable difference when the drawings from the first and fifth
day were compared, which will be discussed next.
Figure 2. Sequence of steps taken by one of the participants in the
second phase 2 of the furniture model activity.
3. DISCUSSION
As it was not possible to obtain any evidence in the pilot project
(2013) regarding the fact that the activity had triggered a
development of the participants graphic expression, the revised
project (2014) was structured in such a way as indicate that they
could express problems and solutions more accurately through
basic design concepts. The different evaluation adopted in the
revised project helped us to measure the influence of the activity
on the participants. In the revised project we could clearly see that
by comparing the two drawings, before and after modeling (CAD)
and fabricating (CAM) the model, there was a significant change
in the graphic representation of the design problem (chair).
Considering that the participants were basically young people,
with no experience in the basic concept of conceiving a chair
structure and thinking about it spatially (with regards to geometry
or perspective), the final free-hand drawing presents a more
mature intervention in the chair design (see Figure 2). Therefore,
from the researchers perspective, the results obtained are aligned
with Paperts considerations since the participants have proven to
be active participants in their own learning aided by the use of the
computer and the machines. Figure 2 shows the results of the
stages of the participant W. Initially he had no expectations about
his chair regarding proportionality, constructability, ergonomics,
functionality and aesthetics, but, after experiencing the stages of
modeling with the software parameters and seeing them being
materialized and assembled, he somehow changed his way of
thinking about a chair and its design. This change and complexity
in the drawings were also noticed in the other participants results
in a scale that went from few details to a high detailed free-hand
representation of the chair.
The verification of the more elaborate graphic representation
could show the development of a specific human ability through
the design activity. According to Vygotsky [13], creativity is a
brain activity based on combining known elements, and, through
such an activity, men are directed to create their future by
changing their present time (p. 9). This theoretician also
considered that one of the most important areas of child and
educational psychology is the issue of creativity in children, its
development and significance to the childs general development
and maturation. Therefore, the activity described in this paper
offers the target public essential elements for the human
development of this specific area by using design technologies
and digital manufacturing.
4. CONCLUSION
The initiative of creating Fab Social made it possible the idea of
bringing technological resources to people residing in the
peripheral areas of the city of Guarulhos. The technology was
included in this project as a means of knowledge, with the active
participation of young people as a public policy educational
activity. Therefore, the project we examined here explores the
dissemination of basic design concepts through the use of
technologies such as CAD-CAM and open source software. Such
technologies were introduced in a playful and experimental way
so that young people with no previous knowledge of the subject
could interact with design concepts and manufacturing processes
and could create their own personalized objects. In this context it
is believed that through the mediation of the participant graphic
language, developed with the help of some concepts of the design
area, it is possible to improve, in short term, the capacity to read
the world through the perspective of projectuality supported by an
experience in CAD-CAM processes. Therefore, the aim of this
action was to contribute to the discussion, together with
educators, about the use of digital tools to develop specific
abilities essential to the human development. In future researches,
the relationship between writing and drawing as combined skills
will be intensified, and the unfolding in the target publics way of
thinking will be analyzed.
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