Creating a Circular Design Workspace: Lessons Learned from Setting up a “Bio-Makerspace”
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Design Nexus Research Group, Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design, Campus Kortrijk, Ghent University, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium
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Centre for Sustainable Development, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Valentina Rognoli, Carla Langella and Marzena Smol
Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2229; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042229
Received: 26 November 2021
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Revised: 27 January 2022
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Accepted: 10 February 2022
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Published: 16 February 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability and Circularity: New Material Scenarios for Product Design)
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.
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Keywords:
circular economy; circular design; circular materials; design workspace; prototyping; bio-makerspace; bio-based materials; DIY-materials
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MDPI and ACS Style
Vuylsteke, B.; Dumon, L.; Detand, J.; Ostuzzi, F. Creating a Circular Design Workspace: Lessons Learned from Setting up a “Bio-Makerspace”. Sustainability 2022, 14, 2229. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042229
AMA Style
Vuylsteke B, Dumon L, Detand J, Ostuzzi F. Creating a Circular Design Workspace: Lessons Learned from Setting up a “Bio-Makerspace”. Sustainability. 2022; 14(4):2229. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042229
Chicago/Turabian StyleVuylsteke, Bert, Louise Dumon, Jan Detand, and Francesca Ostuzzi. 2022. "Creating a Circular Design Workspace: Lessons Learned from Setting up a “Bio-Makerspace”" Sustainability 14, no. 4: 2229. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042229
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