Makespaces: From Redistributed Manufacturing to a Circular Economy

Redistributed manufacturing is an emerging concept which captures the anticipated reshoring and localisation of production from large scale manufacturing plants to smaller-scale localised, customisable production units, largely driven by new additive digital production technologies. Critically, community based digital fabrication workshops, or makespaces, are anticipated to be the hothouse for this new era of localised production and as such are key to future sustainable design and manufacturing practices. In parallel, the concept of the circular economy (CE) conceptualises the move from a linear economy of take-make-waste to a closed loop system, through repair, remanufacturing, refurbishment and recycling which maintains the value of materials and resources. Despite the clear interplay between RdM and CE, there is limited research exploring this relationship. In light of these interconnected developments, the aim of this paper is to explore the role of makespaces in contributing to a circular economy through RdM activities. This is achieved through six semi-structured interviews with thought leaders on these topics. The research findings identify barriers and opportunities to both CE and RdM, uncover key overlaps between CE and RdM, and identify a range of future research directions that can support the coming together of these areas. The research contributes to a wider conversation on embedding circular practices within makespaces and their role in RdM.

Designing Creative Destruction

This research aims to make a contribution in the context of design thinking at a global cultural scale and specifically how design methods are a feature of the homogenising and heterogenising forces of globalisation via creative destruction. Since Schumpeter’s description of economic innovation destroying the old and creating the new, a number of other interpretations of creative destruction have developed including those driving cultural evolution. However a design model showing the impact of different types of design method on cultural evolution can develop an understanding on a more systemic level from the medium to longer term impact of new designs that homogenise or increase the differences between various cultures. This research explores the theoretical terrain between creative destruction, design thinking and cybernetics in the context of exchanging cultural influences for collaborative creativity and concludes with an experiment that proposes a feedback loop between ubiquitising and differentiating design methods mediating cultural variety in creative ecosystems.