Waste Not, Want Not

Co-creating better studio habits: Fostering responsible material usage in student’s design processes within the studio.

I would like to explore how we can embed sustainable approaches to the use of materials in student’s design process within our studio. Part of our assessment criteria requires students to ‘experiment and evaluate methods, results and their implications’, within the Interior and Spatial design course we encourage student to use both physical and digital methods to test their designs. This includes model making, physical drawing, sketches, prototyping, 1:1 scale physical intervention, renders, digital 3D models and drawings, renders, VR models, videos.

These methodologies are critical tools for students to develop their design projects, however they have an environmental consequence and result in the production of waste, some of which is recycled but the majority is sent to landfill. I want to explore how we can embed more sustainable approaches within these methodologies of process without inhibiting a student’s learning journey.