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Reflection of Mill Road Cemetery Project

My main approach is the Double Diamond model. The Double Diamond Model emphasises the process of design thinking. It is based on a human-centred exploratory approach, exploring the real needs of the user, arriving at fantastical solutions and developing a feasibility analysis that ultimately leads to a valid result. This approach allows me to focus more on the people I am designing for, by listening directly to them, finding achievable values and taking the time to tinker and test to arrive at the best solution to meet their needs.

In my further work I use primary research, such as sketching, interviews and photography, and secondary research, such as finding relevant studies and case studies, combined with mind mapping and model building to further catalyse my projects. These methods were used because I wanted to address specific needs more realistically. I draw on theories from a number of disciplines, such as psychology and bionic design, which allow me to more fully address the confusion that arises as the project progresses.

In my project I undertook five parts of research which were key sources in helping me to develop. The first part, the brief-based research. I explored the cemetery itself, using sketching, photography and website information searches to increase my knowledge of the cemetery to identify any issues or needs that existed in the cemetery. The second part of the research was culturally based. As I tried to discover what the real needs were, I conducted audience research. As I come from a Chinese background, I wanted to find out if the real thoughts of foreign friends around the cemetery were different from mine. In this section I used mind maps, literature research and face-to-face interviews. In the third part, the psychological context of art healing was researched. Before the project was designed, I needed to find out if the project would be useful. I mainly looked for literature on art healing. Part four, a study of contemporary chair design. I researched trends in chairs and found out what forms chairs might take that would make it easier for me to enter the design field. The fifth part of the research was based on how chairs are designed. This part of the research mainly helped me to find the most suitable chair design concept for the cemetery. I did this mainly through literature research and model making.  

These parts of research allowed me to find the right entry point to advance my project, to discover step by step the real needs arising from the cemetery and to correspond to the people, and then to help as effectively as I could. The research process has contributed greatly to my project.

I need ethical approval for my research, which involves interviews, and ethical approval could protect the privacy of users from being violated.

My initial idea of creating a space to change a bad mood prompted me to want to get to know my audience better and I was curious if the sense of calm, of healing in the cemetery itself would be useful to the local people. This research in turn led me to develop my project further. I moved from a focus on the use of the cemetery itself to a focus on the issues and needs that the audience needed to address.

As the project progressed, I found a few surprises. Firstly, I was surprised at how much the audience I interviewed had in common in terms of how they make themselves happy, which is a side note to the fact that despite different cultural backgrounds, the real psychological needs of human beings are the same. Secondly, in my research on chair design, I found a lot of interesting designs and this part enriched my knowledge of furniture design to a great extent. Finally, I was surprised by the final chair design results as a number of classmates responded that they liked the design.

When I break new ground with my project research, such as finding an audience, identifying needs and finding useful references, I make new decisions about the development of existing projects. The most important decision was to make a bionic design chair based on the natural environment of the cemetery itself. Because before this decision I had no idea about the final presentation of the chair, and after interviews and literature research, it allowed me to confirm the feasibility of the proposal and at the same time opened up my design ideas.

I found audience research, visualization ideas and feasibility analysis very stimulating. Audience research involved finding and screening the audience in the early stages and analyzing the interview content in the later stages, which was largely completely unknown and therefore very exciting. The visualization phase allowed for completely different results to be obtained using different visualization methods, which also stimulated my interest in the project. Finally, through the feasibility analysis, I would consider whether the project could realistically be produced, which gave me a real connection with the audience and stakeholders.

I am happy with my end result, but there are areas for improvement. Due to the limited time available for the project, I didn't make a real chair, this part needs more professional investigation.

I think my final result fits the brief I set for myself to make a chair that changes people's moods. My chair design solution is to visually evoke memories of pleasure and provide scenarios for its use. For example, if a person is more inclined to change their mood by interacting with friends or talking to family, then a seesaw chair, a listening chair and a four-seater chair can all provide this scenario. If a person is prone to derive pleasure from self-actualization, then high chairs and study chairs can evoke memories of self-actualization.

Next, I thought I could look further into eco-friendly materials,conduct new research into the actual position of the chair and make a real chair. The way of promotion could also go further, for example through the use of real user experiences. Finally, the project could be based on trees, squirrels and other wildlife to create happy chairs, with a feasibility analysis to confirm the final landing of the chair solution.

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Bibliography

[1] Lizhe,G and Jiangping,W.(2016) ‘Preliminary Exploration on Natural Burial Grounds in Europe and America’.To be published in Journal of Chinese Urban Forestry,14(6),pp.61-64

[2] Royal Society for Public Health (2017) ‘Status of Mind:Social media and young people's mental health and wellbeing’. Available at:https://www.rsph.org.uk/ (Accessed:20 October 2022)

[3] O'Connor, R. et al (2021) ‘Mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: Longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study’,The British Journal of Psychiatry, 218(6), pp.326-333.

[4]Ping,H.(2022)Research on product design of healing based on ZMET Method.[Unpublished student essay;Xihua University].

[5] Jiexue,S.(2022) Research on visual healing design using fractal art to improve negative emotions.[Unpublished student essay;Shandong University of Art and Design]

[6] Woodham, J.M. (1997) Twentieth-century design. Oxford: Oxford: Oxford UP.

[7] Hiesinger, K.B. and Marcus, G.H. (1993) Landmarks of twentieth century design: an illustrated handbook. New York: Abbeville Press.

[8] Lei,G.(2014) Bionic design of products based on Emotional experience.[Unpublished student essay;Tianjin University of Science and Technology.]

[9] Kai,C.(2015)The research on Seats Design based on Bionic Theories.[Unpublished student essay;Central South University of Forestry Technology].

[10]Tao,H.(2019) Research on modern furniture design based on sustainable development mode.[Unpublished student essay;Tianjin University of Science and Technology]

[11]Xi,Z.(2017)Research on Modern Furniture Design Practice Based on Green Ecology.[Unpublished student essay;Hunan University of Technology]

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Final presentation

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Project promotion and budget

The tentative budget for the project is £11,000 and the main costs will include the production of the chairs and labour costs. I will be seeking support primarily from mental health related organisations.

When the chair is ready, people will be able to find out about the project through the official website, outdoor posters, social media and other channels.

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Location of chairs and timeline

For the placement of the chairs, I recorded paths and clearings in the cemetery where I could match the need for chairs to the size of the clearing. For example, the four-seater chairs could be placed near the clearing to create a suitable scene for people to chat. Seesaw chairs can be placed along paths to do more exposure and attract people who really need it.

The overall time planning I took into account contacting shareholders, post adjustment, chair making and after sales service, and I divided the time into three parts: short, medium and long term planning.

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Choice of materials

For the material selection of the chair, I first looked at sustainable design (Tao, 2019). There are three stages of sustainable design, which are the green design stage - following the 5R design principles and utilising materials with minimal environmental impact in the production process. The eco-design stage - focuses not only on whether the product is produced and processed in an environmentally friendly manner, but also on recycling and reusing the product at a later stage. Integrated design stage - sustainable design has evolved to integrate products, people and nature, requiring consideration of not only the design of the product itself, but also the sustainability of the services it provides, broadening the focus of sustainable design by considering the production and services of the product as a whole.

I therefore envisage designing chairs from recyclable materials to begin with, while, as the project progresses, the chairs can be recycled and a second generation of chairs that make people feel better will be produced.

Secondly, I researched the materials available for the chair. These are Traditional materials, Natural alternative materials and New composite materials (Xi, 2017), my preferred choice for the chair is reinforced resin panels, which are made from renewable resources such as straw, wood flour, bamboo flour and other plant fibres. The product has excellent processing and surface decoration properties, can be moulded quickly and can be used and reproduced continuously. The lacquer of choice is environmentally friendly wood wax lacquer, which has a wide choice of colours and does not contain harmful ingredients.

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Bionic design

I started to conceptualise. For example, a combination of flowers in the cemetery and a sense of relaxation, a combination of birds in the cemetery and people's desire to socialise, etc. In the end, I modelled several options through 3d modelling.

The first drop, the flower chairs. When people want to sit down, they will first see a flower in full bloom, bringing a sense of surprise through the power of life in full bloom.When people need company, they can experience a seesaw chair and return to the pleasures of childhood, or they can do so on a four-seater flower and chat with each other.Finally, there is a listening chair with headphones and the random sound of rain, wind and birdsong from the cemetery.

The second group, the bird chairs. Birds have the power of flight that humans envy, so the first birdie chair is a high chair that requires climbing stairs and signifies the power of self-realisation. The second is a hugging chair, on which you can sit and not only be hugged by the bird, but also rest flat on your back. The third step is a study chair, which uses the silhouette of flight to signify the future. Finally, there is a relaxation chair that can be rocked from side to side to relax.

The colour of the chair is mainly purple, which in most cultures signifies calmness and detachment, much like the sense of calm given by a cemetery. At the same time, the purple colour is conspicuous, distinguishing it from the original environment of the cemetery and increasing the possibility of people trying it out.

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Chair Design Research

I first learned about existing chair design and trends through Woodham (1997) and Hiesinger and Marcus (1993), which helped me to expand my knowledge of the aesthetics of chair design, and I found that contemporary chair design is more about adapting to multiple life situations and becoming a medium for expressing emotions.

Secondly, I looked up design research on emotional healing (Rui, 2022) I found that emotions can be metaphorically represented through nature-related design, for example the author designed a volcano vase to represent the power of upward mobility.

Finally, I looked up information on how to design a chair.combined with the natural feel of the cemetery, I found that the form of bionic design could achieve the effect I wanted more directly, and that I could expand my project by tapping into the natural power of the cemetery.

There are three categories of bionic design (Kai, 2015): bionic based on natural shapes, bionic based on natural structures or functions, and finally bionic based on natural materials. Based on my research, the cemetery itself has a natural form that can bring emotional healing to people. Therefore, I intend to develop a bionic design based on natural forms.

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Mini PechaKucha presentation

When I walked into the cemetery, I found a breeze, birdsong, big trees, interesting wildlife, a sense of peace away from the crowds, stories of death full of regret or peace.After spending some time here, I seemed to feel a sense of healing that belongs to the Mill Road Cemetery.

When I started the project, I began to wonder why British cemeteries were so healing. So, I started my research. I discovered that cemeteries in the UK are also called eco-cemeteries or green cemeteries, firstly to address the shortage of land for cemeteries and secondly to respond positively to the global call for biodiversity conservation.

While the word healing is very familiar to the Chinese, who are under great pressure to survive, is it also true in the UK? Research shows that anxiety and depression rates among young people in the UK have risen by 25% in the last 25 years .Secondly, people in the UK are experiencing a real depression crisis due to the covid blocking.Now in 2022, what are people's perceptions for healing? I tried to design an interview.

In this interview, I found that almost everyone I asked, regardless of background, answered that they needed to be healed. The need for healing was broadly divided into three areas, pointing to healing the past, the present and the future.

At this point, as an illustrater,what could I do?I entered the cemetery again. I found although the setting was natural and healing, there wasn't really much of a place to stay, so I thought I could make some chairs so that people could stay better, or even feel better.

I researched papers on visual healing and found that when people are in a negative mood, they mainly think through the left side of their brain. The effectiveness of visual healing lies in reactivating the right brain, allowing them to transform their unconscious visual thinking to reach positive emotions.

I have again compiled and expanded the questionnaire, trying to build a consensus map of people's perception of healing through data analysis, in the form of artistic healing, and using this as my design rationale

Here I have summarised the visual information that people have provided me with in their photographs, which are currently divided into four sections: nature, childhood, companionship, and self-realization, and the images show an idea based on a nature perspective.

I will then explore the real design process in conjunction with new questionnaire research, considering the functional and aesthetic needs of the chair, whether the material of the chair is environmentally friendly, and the actual map researching the placement of the chair in the cemetery.

At this point, I am going to call my project "The Healing Chair". If you are passing by the cemetery and you are unhappy, hopefully the "Healing Chair" will make you feel better. Eventually, if the project is successful, it could be considered for expansion into a new form of mental health care.

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The physiological basis of visual healing

Negative emotions are interpreted as emotions that are subjectively unpleasant or stressful for the individual. Depression has now become a neglected global health crisis. (Jiexue,2022) Research into the physiological basis of visual therapy has revealed that when people are in a negative mood, they think primarily through their left brain, while the right brain, which is responsible for figurative thinking, is inhibited, so the effect of visual therapy lies in reactivating people's right brain. In the 20th century psychologists have shown that the human brain is quick to accept information that is visual in nature, and in the process of viewing a work of art, the viewer is visually stimulated and the image information and emotional memory stored in the right side of the brain is activated, both to heal oneself and to appreciate the emotions embedded in the artist.

My research will be dedicated to visual healing design, so that more people can achieve positive emotional transformation through unconscious visual thinking

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Cemetery-based research-Interviews

I interviewed people around the cemetery to try to discover why people are unhappy and how to make effective mood changes. I interviewed a total of 8 people and the questionnaire came in the form of an interview. First I asked the audience to provide 8 images of what made them feel happy and to share the reasons behind them in depth, trying to find commonalities in people's mood transformation.Each interview lasted around one hour, so my audience was mainly students from around the school.

The research revealed that most people accomplish their mood transformation mainly through nature, childhood, relationships and self-realization, the reasons behind which were largely in line with Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

At the end of the questionnaire, I also asked for specific feelings about the healing object, such as material, colour, smell, sound, size, etc. Although these descriptions differed greatly, they were all ultimately about satisfying psychological feelings, and therefore the presence of what makes a person heal is based more on the psychological level.

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The mental health of British people - secondary research

According to a report by the Royal Society for Public Health(2017), the rate of anxiety and depression among young people has increased by 70% in the last 25 years; according to O'Connor et al (2021), people in the UK were indeed experiencing a huge depressive mood crisis due to covid Isolation.

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Persona  presentation

Based on the Healing House audience research, I assumed three audiences: an ARU university student who had just fallen out of love, a single mother with stressful jobs, and an architect who had just lost her pet dog. Through class role-playing, I found a number of directions to explore.

1. What is the mental health of the people around the cemetery?

2.What ways can turn happy for the local people?

3. What kind of environment can I create for these people in the cemetery?

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Healing House idea

I wanted to create a space that would amplify the sense of calm in the cemetery and make unhappy people happy.

The first thing that came to mind was a theme related to 'burial'; the meaning of Mill rood cemetery for people today is less about remembering those who came before us and more about creating a link to reality. So I thought I could use "burial" as an entry point. It's a space where people can bury everything, whether it's a bad mood, an ex-boyfriend, stress or a heavy story.

Through the class discussion, I realised that my healing house needed to be more available. I started with the existing use of the cemetery to find out what real needs people might have and addressed those real needs through my healing house.

1. Purpose:Highlighting the healing role of the cemetery

2. People: unemployed, lost love; loss of a loved one; with stressful life; no purpose in life

3. Specific uses：

Space of Questions - no question, only statement

Space of answers - write down what people want to do next

Meditation space - Create a wall of meditation using the natural forces of the cemetery, such as birdsong, wind, wildlife, etc.

Farewell Space- Choose the location on the cemetery map where you want to be buried and make a farewell by posting the burial object in the form of a text or picture in that location.

After tutorial, I found the content of the house to be a quick experience that did not match the slow pace of the cemetery itself, the interior of the house was not set up concisely enough, the meditation space was very redundant, because the sense of peace came naturally once you were in the cemetery,and the healing space itself was already there.

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Research on ecological cemeteries

I began to think deeply about why cemeteries give me a sense of healing and wanted to make 'healing' the theme of my cemetery project.

I researched the history of cemeteries in Europe. Geng Lizhe and Wang Jiangping (2016) conducted a study on ecological cemeteries in Europe, which mentions that ecological cemeteries in the UK, mainly grass and tree burials, are to address the problem of space scarcity and to respond to the UN Conference on Environment and Development's recommendations to protect biodiversity.

There are three types of green burial grounds, the first category is the Hybrid Burial Grounds, like the Mill Road cemetery, which meets the needs of both traditional cemeteries and Green Burial Grounds, using traditional gravestone memorials and preserving native trees and open spaces. The second category is Natural Burial Grounds, which adheres more strictly to sustainable ecological principles, restricts the decoration of graves, serves as a habitat for endangered species and requires eco-friendly burial materials. The third category is Conservation Burial Grounds, which emphasises its ecological purpose and can be seen as a nature reserve providing burial function, with memorial objects replaced by local stones and plants only, without disturbing the surrounding environment and with restricted access.

This allowed me to understand the environmental context of the mill road cemetery being both a cemetery and a park.

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Cemetery sketching

I entered the cemetery again on a sunny afternoon. Although I have found many faults with the cemetery on the web, I was still healed by the great sense of calm in the cemetery when I actually walked into it here.

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Mill road cemetery reseach

I researched the cemetery's website in the hope of gaining a clearer understanding of the cemetery. I found that the cemetery has a wealth of wildlife resources, a collection of all the gravestones and stories of people who have passed away in the cemetery, and even regular events. One can follow the website's guidelines to explore different cemetery trails, such as tree trail and family trail. The art of the cemetery is one that is associated with bird song and the stone markers are a good blend of cemetery textures.

Issues identified:

1. Although the cemetery is rich in resources, there is no attractive method of display, everything needs to be done with the help of the website.

2. The history of the cemetery goes back to the 19th century. The stories are so far removed from the present that they may not be of much interest to people.

3. I think the configuration of the existing cemetery does a good job of retaining the original, natural feeling of the cemetery and is actually vibrant enough in its own right.