ABSTRACT
Twelve design case studies focus on a specific object that is currently failing to reach its own potential in the circular economy whether for economic, material, formal, or educational reasons. Each case study broadly investigates global issues and trends associated with the material’s distinct recycling categories resulting in proposed interventions at a range of points along the material object’s life trajectory, from innovation of materials, components, and concepts, at the point of manufacture, to shifting social practices and education around reuse. Each proposal is twofold: first, the case studies consider a second life for each of the material objects, through an investigation of their unique formal, physical, temporal, and ecological material properties. Second, an experimental usage of the object in an architectural pavilion aims to raise awareness about the issues surrounding the particular material object.
