In a new video series, What Design Can Do’s Make it Circular Challenge interviews four circular designers about the importance of circular design and the urgent need to radically redesign the world we live in.
Never before have we produced, consumed – or thrown away – so much stuff. That’s why last year What Design Can Do in partnership with the IKEA Foundation launched the global Make it Circular Challenge inviting innovators everywhere to radically redesign a fairer and more sustainable world.
“Creatives and designers often create out of frustration about how things work, or don’t. This campaign encourages creatives to turn their outrage into action,” says What Design Can Do’s co-founder and creative director Richard van der Laken. He adds:
We want designers to think about what frustrates them and encourage them to redesign a fairer, more sustainable world that works for people and the planet.
In a series of videos published this week, four renowned designers – Arthur Huang (Miniwiz), Bas van Abel (Fairphone), Carla Fernandez (Carla Fernandez fashion house), and Poonam Bir Kasturi (Daily Dump) – weigh in on the state of the world and the designer’s responsibility to make our processes and products more circular.
“When I started making fashion, I didn’t have any other choice than doing it the right way. It shouldn’t be an option to make it fast. It shouldn’t be an option to be designed to be thrown away,” says Carla Fernandez, a renowned fashion designer working closely with artisans based in Mexico. She adds:
It shouldn’t be an option for fashion to be designed to be disposable.
Some of the most innovative designs around the world were born out of frustration with the way things work — or don’t work! Speaking about the conception of Fairphone — a repairable and sustainable smartphone — founder Bas van Abel says:
One day my son came to me with a broken Nintendo. They use special screws to make it difficult for people to open it. That made me really pissed to throw away something I knew I could still fix.
Besides making better, more long-lasting products, circular design is also about learning to live within our planetary boundaries. This means finding ways to create new value out of old things — and to dream up second lives for existing materials and resources. For Arthur Huang, founder of Miniwiz:
We see trash as a possibility. It isn’t trash, it’s just misplaced resources. We find it very exciting to turn [trash] into something unimaginable.
For our societies to become fully circular, we need to change the way we design: from quick fixes to long-term solutions, from exploiting the Earth to collaborating with it, and from creating new materials to using what we already have. All four designers are unanimously clear: It’s time to take action and create a world that works for everyone. As Poonam Bir Kasturi, founder of Daily Dump, says, “We want people to reimagine waste as a resource, and not something that needs to be sent to landfills.” She adds:
Why should we all be thinking circular? This is a no brainer.
Join the Make It Circular Challenge
Do you have an idea that contributes to a circular society? What Design Can Do invites innovators everywhere to contribute imaginative ideas that prevent waste and radically rethink our way of life: from what we eat and wear, to why we buy and how we build. The Make it Circular Challenge calls on designers to support the creation of a circular society that respects both people and nature.
A jury of leading experts in design, social impact, and climate action will select a minimum of 10 winners. Winning ideas will be turned into reality with €10.000 in funding and a global development programme that has been co-created with Impact Hub, which includes online training, mentoring sessions, and a bootcamp. This programme will support the winning teams in further strengthening their projects, and propelling them through 2023 and beyond.
- Apply online via the Make it Circular platform
- Applications close on 31 January 2023
- To follow along as the competition progresses, follow WDCD on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
- Cover image: The challenge intends to encourage designs to develop sustainable processes and products. Photo: Borrowed architecture by Overtreders
