Abstract
In today’s industrial short-lived products, long-lasting materials are often implemented (e.g., oil-based plastics for throwaway packaging). Circular economy teaches the importance of keeping these materials in use, as well as designing end-of-lives that regenerate natural systems. Designers can help drive to a circular transition, but are they ready for this challenge? Educating young designers on circularity seems a fundamental first step, including knowing and meaningfully using circular, bio-based and biodegradable materials. This substantiates the decision to expand the UGent Campus Kortrijk Design workspace to include specific technologies for circular, bio-based and biodegradable materials as a means of experiential learning during the prototyping phase. This paper reports on setting up a “bio-makerspace” as well as the use, adaption and redesign by 45 students. Qualitative data on work dynamics, used tools, materials, barriers and enablers were captured and analyzed to potentially facilitate the implementation of similar “bio-makerspaces” in different institutions. The next steps include the expansion and intensification of the use of the lab, in conjunction with the education of students to meaningfully match these materials to sustainable applications beyond the prototyping phase.
Highlights
Academic discourse, general press and social media are increasingly pointing out the critical and unbalanced synergies between humankind and the environment [1]
As there is often an “over-dimensioning” between the material lifespan and its application, importance is given to bio-based materials
The article ends with discussing the barriers and enablers that emerged by analyzing the students’ perspectives
Summary
General press and social media are increasingly pointing out the critical and unbalanced synergies between humankind and the environment [1]. Several studies focus on the impacts deriving from the industrial sector; these look at all industrial activities, from the extraction and use of materials to the methodologies through which products are created and manufactured, and from the economic models that sustain value exchanges to the users’ behaviors during use and consumption. All these activities can broadly relate to design, where “design” is intended in its core meaning of “the act of creation of what does not yet exist but is ought to be” [4].
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