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A groundswell of designers, small-scale entrepreneurs and consumers are redefining waste - seeing it as a resource and imprinting new marks on our lived cultures by turning to circular supply systems. This paper investigates regenerated materials made from textile waste for use as ‘new’ products in the built environment. The study finds that while innovations from waste-based products are growing rapidly, their adoption seems obstructed behind walls of limited communication and economic risk aversion. The promising news is that some small and micro factories are taking on the challenge of commercialising new innovations - and succeeding. Designers are building value through the adoption of regenerated products within the larger creative economy. However, even this apparently more sustainable route has its pitfalls. Through an exploratory approach, this study illuminates some of the steps still required for systems change towards full circularity in the production and adoption of textile waste as a resource for the built environment.

So far 137 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus worldwide, and over 2.96 million lives have been lost. The urgent and sustained response to COVID-19 has impacted on everyone’s life in one way or another. This paper contributes to the collective and reflective appraisal of COVID-19’s impact by conducting a horizon scan in search for some of the post-pandemic implications for design research. After reviewing some general implications, we investigate two focus areas: (1) supply chain disruptions, and; (2) post-pandemic cities. While some measures may remain temporary and ad hoc, our analysis suggests it is imperative to derive a learning dividend and legacy from this traumatic and profound experience. We conclude with some remarks on community activism and ways for design to evolve in order to create more socially and ecologically just practices and outcomes in the aftermath of this global crisis.

COVID-19 threats have been impacting disadvantaged communities even harder. This paper looks into challenge areas and community responses to those in Brazilian informal settlements during the COVID-19 pandemic. These were identified through online roundtables with community members and representatives of NGOs in five Brazilian informal settlements. Our findings show how community members unconsciously design, deploying community-led (or diffuse) design capabilities to tackle COVID-19 challenges. These capabilities have been critical to coping with the immediate effects of the pandemic in communities. However, they are limited to short-term and reactive strategies. We argue that these natural problem-solving skills can be enhanced through a transition from diffuse to co-design capabilities to further harness community creativity towards better futures; extending community-led design capabilities into challenges and opportunity areas in a more strategic way for communities. This research contributes to filling the gap in design studies on how and to which extent communities unconsciously design.

This article presents and discusses the case study “Scraping the surface,” aworkshop about sustainable design held for master’s students of different design majors at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design. Through marketing we, as consumers, are bombarded with products claiming to be sustainable. As a result, sustainability has become a buzz word. “Scraping the surface” highlighted the complex factors a designer needs to consider when designing sustainable products. During the workshop students discussed how a designer can have an impact on the lifecycle of a product or a system through material choice, production method, design for longevity, design for sustainable behaviour using the principles of behaviour change and design for the end of product use. Students were asked to bring a product that they found to be sustainable and to justify their reasoning using its characteristics. A list of criteria was compiled and converted into a function analysis. After the workshop a literature review was conducted to identify words and actions that could be added to make the list more holistic, focusing on ecology. To conclude, the proposed Revised Function Analysis of Sustainability can be used as a tool in the early design process to identify opportunities, specify deliverables and aid communication in development teams in terms of sustainability. The tool can also be used as a teaching and learning tool to provide a visual overview of possible traits that can be applied throughout the life cycle of an object. This can help to encourage upstream activities to prevent product renewal and avoid landing in the waste hierarchy. The template includes the potential benefits to the ecosystem and gives examples and further references. Consequently, the purpose of the tool is to be used as a creative tool rather than an assessment tool, specifying both desirable and undesirable outcomes.

Becoming Lost and Found in Translation is a participatory co-designed research project involving university art and design students and staff investigating how acts of translation can enhance learning and critical thinking. Using our collaboratively constructed design school manifesto as a starting point it has been translated into over 45 languages that are spoken at our university. This paper outlines the initial findings of this project and how it can be used to think about ideas of meta cognition in learning, transitions from one state to another, liberating and decolonising curricula and how translation itself advances thinking in design education.