*Please read the overview of our Design for Circularity Workshop Series to learn about the background and objective of the workshop!
Lecture “What is circular design?”
A 60-minute lecture to provide the participants with basic knowledge of circular design.
Contents:
Linear VS circular design
Circular economy
Circular business: Product → Service design
Circular design strategies
Examples of circular business and design
Explanation of the design brief
Hands-on learning
Rapid material research
Rapid prototyping
Progress sharing
[Day 2]
Prototyping
“Circular Flow Map” exercise
A 60-minute exercise for participants to draw a “Circular Flow Map” of their products based on their learnings from the lecture on Day 1. After drawing the participants engage in a group discussion about the maps and share their thoughts for further findings and understanding.
The exercise aims to encourage participants to think holistically about their designs and acts as a complementary activity for reflection on possible circular business models, material alternatives, and lifecycle considerations to fit their concepts.
Homework - Create an improved version of your Circular Flow Map (“Circular Flow Map 2.0”)
[Day 3]
Prototyping
Exhibition preparations and documentation of the final product prototypes
Essential documentation of the product results as they are fully assembled before going to the final exercise of disassembly on Day 4.
Exhibition
The exhibition aimed to create an opportunity for participants to present their works to an audience. This encouraged the participants to reach a level of completeness in their works and to organize their processes and thoughts in order to convey them to the visitors.
Presentations
Final works
Circular Flow Maps
Feedback from visitors
After talk
[Day 4]
Reflection, group discussion, and sharing further references with the participants
The goal for the final day was to help participants to think beyond the workshop and to encourage the application of their recent learnings to their practices in school and beyond.
We aimed to reach the goal in two ways:
Reflection by the participants
Encourage participants to reflect on their findings from the workshop and think about which part of (circular) design they are interested in to further investigate and take part in.
Providing further references by the organizers
In response to their interests, we provided references as starting points for further individual research.
2. Disassembly and packing
Participants put their products to the test.
Data collection
During workshop 1.0 data was gathered through group talks with the participants throughout each workshop day and via questionnaires at the end of the workshop. We provided the participants with digital logbooks where they could keep track of their design processes. The logbooks were a tool to collect additional insights into the thoughts on concept creation and prototyping processes of the participants. We also collected data through internal discussions and wrote down our observations in short reports at the end of each day. In these discussions, we reflected on the participants’ actions and perceived struggles. Before the final exercise of disassembly on day 4, all prototypes that the participants made were photographed and examined. The focus of the examination was on assessing the effectiveness of the workshop activities of the past three days by reflecting on how the prototypes fit the scope of circularity. Since the design brief of this workshop was initially directed toward design for disassembly, this design strategy was leading in most of the prototypes. Besides design for disassembly, a few participants explored other circular product design strategies, such as zero waste pattern making to eliminate the generation of waste in the making process.