Sustainability by Design – What does design have to do with repairability, and what does durability have to do with sustainability?
In collaboration with the Alfried Krupp-Schülerlabor der Künste (Alfried Krupp Student Lab for the Arts), the SPACE FOR REPAIR offered multiple workshops for pupils on the design of electronic devices and sustainability.
In the workshop entitled »Sustainability by Design – What does design have to do with repairability, and what does durability have to do with sustainability?«, examples were used to explore which factors influence the lifespan of electronic devices and what role design plays in this. For this purpose, devices are disassembled in small groups and aspects such as design, choice of materials, and manufacturing quality are analysed and documented. These findings were used to design better products in terms of sustainability.
The Alfried Krupp-Schülerlabor der Künste was launched in May 2022 and sees itself as a “place of open artistic experimentation, independent research and shared aesthetic experience” and makes a valuable contribution to the transfer activities of Folkwang University of the Arts.
Further information, the dates and the possibility to register can be found here.
From a pile of old clothes to a new favourite outfit – Repairing and redesigning clothes at »Folkwang repairs!«
SPACE FOR REPAIR
SPACE FPR TEXTILES
Image Credits: Dominik-Antoni Krolikowski
The first workshop on repairing and redesigning garments took place in May. Probably every wardrobe contains numerous items of clothing that are no longer worn – they are broken, out of shape, don’t look appealing or have simply been forgotten. The workshop focussed on all of these items. The ‘Space for Textiles’ and the ‘Space for Repair’ provided numerous examples to offer inspiration on how to turn the T-shirts, cardigans, textile banners and safety waistcoats brought along into new favourite pieces. The workshop participants took up scissors, needle and thread themselves under professional support. Old T-shirts were turned into crop tops, patches from the laser cutter were used to give a cardigan a flashy pattern, knitted add-ons were used to refashion tops with new collars, sleeves and cuffs and numerous fabric scraps were turned into bags for laptops, tablets etc.
It has become a tradition: Numerous objects were examined, unscrewed, cut up, and repaired in the Folkwang workshops. The occasion was the fourth round of Folkwang repariert!
SPACE FOR REPAIR
SPACE FOR TEXTILES
Image Credits: Dominik-Antoni Krolikowski
Which was hosted by the ‘Space for Textiles’ and the ‘Space for Repair’. Workshop participants explored broken things they had brought with them and got to the bottom of why they no longer work. Among them were kitchen blenders, electric toothbrushes, phones, lamps, record players, pencil cases, jumpers, jackets, and lots more.
This series of workshops is not just about repair – but of course it’s great when it is successful. Rather, product structures and constructions are explored through making, with the aim of using this knowledge to develop and design sustainable products in the future.
The production of synthetic dyes and colours is one of the major contributors to environmental pollution from industrial processes.
Experimenting with possible alternatives, the SPACE FOR BIOMATERIALS held a Microbial Colour Workshop with design students this spring. In this workshop, we explored how to grow pigment-producing bacteria, experiment with different methods of pigment extraction, and transfer the colour onto new materials.
The first repair format of the SPACE FOR REPAIR, »Folkwang repairs!«, took place during the Rundgang, the large annual exhibition of Folkwang University of the Arts.
Visitors were able to bring along defective devices and repair them collaboratively, under supervision. A wide variety of objects and products were repaired: in addition to small electronic devices such as toasters, fans, and blenders, screens and textile objects were also repaired. Visitors had access to the expertise of the members of the SPACE FOR REPAIR, as well as to on-site infrastructure in the form of the machines and tools required for the repairs. Through this, the repaired objects could be saved from being disposed of. In addition to the collaborative, practical work, “Folkwang repairs!” also offered the opportunity to visit an accompanying exhibition that showed student projects dealing with resource conservation and reparability in the context of product design.
The initial formats of the SPACE FOR TEXTILES were a series of three Kniterate workshops, each building on the previous one.
The initial formats of the SPACE FOR TEXTILES were a series of three Kniterate workshops, each building on the previous one. Together with the Maker Space of the Ruhr University Bochum and under the direction of the Textile Prototyping Lab, a workshop was held that focussed intensively on knitting technology. In addition to teaching the theoretical basics of knitting machines, the workshop focussed on the creation of knit samples. The Kniterate is a development from the maker and fab lab scene and offers the opportunity to realise digital designs using machine knitting. The newly acquired and deepened knowledge and the corresponding craftsmanship skills will benefit experimental design research processes at SPACE FOR TEXTILES in the future.
