Seen as an extension of Design Thinking, Circular Design has been introduced by IDEO and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2016.
“Moving from our traditional take-make-dispose economy, to one that has a closed loop, where materials, nutrients, and data are continuously repurposed.”
Normally we consider the production of something as a quite linear process. Picking an idea, digging things out, using it until we throw it away. Somewhere in the middle is the phase of usage, where we as designers do our job of researching, designing, prototyping & testing. The disadvantage is, that in the end we create garbage, that can be used as row material for new products.
The idea of circular design is, thinking about how a product can be …
- Reused (goes directly back to your users)
- Refurbished (comes back to you as the service provider)
- Remanufactured (goes through the manufacturing process)
- Recycled (goes back to the materials processor)
already during the phase of creation.
Examples are e.g.
The methods are inspiring and well prepared: https://www.circulardesignguide.com/methods
The resources as well https://www.circulardesignguide.com/resources
