An innovative approach for design interpretation (2011)

Abstract

This paper aims to present and debate a museological and museographic initiative in the area of Portuguese Design. The project is not so much a museum as an Interpretation Centre for Portuguese Design (ICPD), whose role will be to investigate (gather, connect, study, classify, communicate and display) the extent of the heritage of Portuguese artefacts, presently dispersed about the country and at risk of disappearing into oblivion. We believe that an “reverse design” approach (a term that has been coined through analogy with “reverse engineering”), involving retracing the creative process from the object itself to the idea that gave rise to it, will enable us to identify a particularly Portuguese identity for these artefacts, which will do justice to its long history and the wealth of geographic and cultural influences that have contributed to it.