I have recently completed my studies in Product Design in 2021 and in the short period of my studies I had the opportunity to work on a very interesting research project that aimed to highlight how both consumers and designers can contribute to a circular economy in which less products, furniture in particular, are disposed of prematurely, but can be repaired, reconfigured, reused or recycled in order to reduce furniture in the waste stream and in landfill.
The first image demonstrates the early form study of table model transforming into a bench, bookshelf and coat stand using the same components pictured in the centre of the image. The user would change the form according to their requirements.
The following images show the 1:5 scale models and renders of the Morphology Series desk – so titled as it is a unique transformable desk that can be transformed into a bench or a coatstand as required by the user, should their space requirements change even after several years of use as a desk in the primary configuration.
The final artefact seeks to encourage designers to ask themselves more questions about their design process and to serve as a vehicle to explore new ways of expressing industrial design. Beyond asking themselves how the object they design will serve a single purpose or function, the design of the final artefact seeks to prompt designers to consider questions such as:
‘How will this be repaired, by whom and with what tools?’
‘What are the first likely points of failure and what solutions will solve the problem when it occurs? “
‘What affordances are embodied within this artefact and what other structures could it be?’ ‘What could this artefact be reconfigured into if change was necessary to inhibit disposal?’ ‘What materials would allow for the greatest durability and ease of user maintenance?
The images show the product autopsy of a discarded bedside storage cabinet – the disassembled components as well as the two products – a pendant light and a wall clock – made from the components demonstrating how the discarded components can be reused and recycled. A user would also be able to reuse the storage cabinet in several different intermediate ways – before full recycling was necessary.
