The Invention of The Rolling Pan Lid

The rolling pan lid is the product that was produced during the inside project. It tackled the problems of how to cook more efficiently and to save space. It took advantage of folding techniques to solve these issues. It raised themes of the changing way of how people live, connect and use products. This report will explain how the product can relate to mass urbanisation, the information age and containerization.The rolling pan lid rolls up to save space. This is important because population spread is changing. With more people moving into urban areas such as cities and towns to have better services and connections to others, instead of remaining within the more rural areas with beautiful vistas but very few opportunities to work and make money with the capitalist society we live in. This large grouping of populations has made people live in much smaller and cramped homes that have smaller kitchens and less storage space. This is stated in the book Future Cities: All That Matters “When people migrate to cities they minimize their housing costs by living in crowded small places, often with no sanitation, but the community ties are strong” - (Camilla Ween, 2014).

This will often create problems with pollution and the effects on the environment due to urbanisation have been incredibly destructive. To tackle this fact the rolling pan lid has not been made of plastics but instead, sustainable bamboo which will biodegrade over time and the handles have been made out of recyclable steel.The internet was used extensively within the project, it was an incredibly useful tool for the research section. This would of have not been possible before the birth of the information age.The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age) is a period in the human era characterized by the change from industry to an economy based on information technology. It is a designed place David Puttnam explains this very well with the sentence “This virtual world is one that we ourselves are creating. There is no big bang, no divine purpose, no harmony of the spheres - unless we so design it” (D. Puttnam, 1996).

The advent of worldwide adoption of the internet has allowed for collaboration, communication and innovation at speeds that were never available before. This has aided in global trade as a designer such as myself can communicate with a Chinese manufacturing plant to get parts easily and cost-effectively.The parts ordered from China would of have not been cost-effective or may not of have even arrived without containerization. Containerization is a system of goods transport using metal containers (also called shipping containers). The containers have international standard dimensions. This allows for a container to fit onto any purpose-built ship, train or lorry without thought as the whole world of shipping knows that the container will always be the same size. Marc Levinson explains the seamless system of freight transportation in his book The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. “ A 25-ton container of coffee makers can leave a factory in Malaysia, be loaded aboard a ship, and cover the 9000 miles to Los Angeles in 23 days. A day later the container is on a unit train to Chicago, where it is transferred immediately to a truck heading for Cincinnati. The 11000 mile trip from the factory gate to the Ohio warehouse can take as little as 28 days, at a rate of 400 miles per day at a cost lower than that of a single business class airline ticket.” ( M. Levison 2006).

The rolling pan lid would not be feasible without the globalisation that containerization brings. As the bamboo used for the main body of the pan lid will be coming from Asia and the price would be prohibitive without these relatively cheap transportation costs.The themes explored in this review of the larger global aspects that impacted the rolling pan lids creation have been integral to its success within the modern world. The project as a whole has been very enjoyable and has lead to a large amount of new knowledge being applied to the product. The connectedness of the modern world is amazing and allows for new innovation and collaboration between populations of this world. If the world continues this steady stream of faster and better communication it may lead to many great things such as interplanetary travel and a better standard of living for all. However, these advancements have not come without downsides such as the further degradation of our planet's ecosystem and values.