Computational Design Methods and Traditional Craft Integration: Developing a Hybrid Framework for Nigerian Artisan Industries

The relationship between computational design methods, including parametric modelling, generative design algorithms, and digital fabrication, and traditional craft knowledge represents one of the most theoretically rich and practically significant frontiers in contemporary design research. This doctoral study develops a Hybrid Computational-Craft Design Framework specifically for application within Nigerian artisan industries, addressing the productive integration of digital design capability with embodied traditional craft knowledge in sectors including woodcarving, textile weaving, bronze casting, and leatherwork. The research employs a practice-based research methodology combining twelve months of embedded participation in artisan workshops in Osun, Kano, Benue, and Lagos states with parallel computational design experimentation at a digital fabrication laboratory. Theoretical analysis draws on tacit knowledge theory, sociotechnical systems theory, and postdigital design discourse to conceptualise the epistemological relationship between computational and craft knowledge forms. Seventeen hybrid design experiments are conducted in collaboration with master craftspeople, each generating both designed artefacts and documented knowledge-transfer protocols. The Hybrid Computational-Craft Design Framework emerging from this process specifies four integration modes, namely digital-to-craft translation, craft-to-digital encoding, co-evolutionary development, and digital augmentation, with operationalisation guidelines and epistemological boundary conditions for each. The framework is validated through an international expert symposium and pilot implementation in two artisan enterprise development programmes. Contributions advance both digital craft theory and the practical methodology of technology-craft integration in African craft economies. Keywords: computational design, traditional craft, hybrid framework, artisan industries, Nigeria.