Showing papers by "Conny Bakker published in 2019"

Circular Product Design: Addressing Critical Materials through Design

Abstract: For product designers, the world has traditionally been one of resource abundance. Introducing them to a resource-constrained world thus requires new design strategies. This chapter explores how embedding circular economy principles into design practice and education could help product designers take critical material problems into account. We introduce four product design strategies that address materials criticality: (1) avoiding and (2) minimizing the use of critical materials, (3) designing products for prolonged use and reuse, and (4) designing products for recycling. The ‘circular’ strategies (3) and (4) are elaborated, as these sit most firmly within the remit of product design. This leads to a typology of circular product design that redefines product and material lifetime in terms of obsolescence, and introduces a range of approaches to resist, postpone or reverse product and material obsolescence. The typology establishes the basis for the field of circular product design, bringing together design approaches that were until this date unconnected and paving the way for the development of detailed design methods.

Design competencies for a circular economy

Abstract: Limited research has been done on design competencies for a circular economy in practice. Yet, an overview of design competencies for a circular economy would be useful to understand which topics should be emphasized in both education and practice. This paper focuses on deriving circular economy competencies for product designers working in industry. The study consisted of three focus groups with twelve designers that are actively exploring circular economy opportunities in an industrial product design context. We derived six design competencies for a circular economy: (1) circular economy understanding, (2) circular economy storytelling (3) setting circular criteria, (4) assessing circular solutions, (5) connecting reverse logistics with users, and (6) design for multiple use cycles. These six competencies are presented and reflected upon by comparing them to competencies found in literature. Two of the competencies found (i.e., circular economy understanding and storytelling) are new compared to those mentioned in literature. The other four competencies found in this study overlap or further specify competencies mentioned in literature. Ultimately, the relevancy of each of the six competencies for an individual designer is determined by the role this designer has in a company.