reuse.city lab#

The name reuse.city was originally used to name of my research studies. In August 2024, I started using the name Reuse City for my studio.

reuse.city lab was a research study created to co-design speculative technologies, methodologies, and systems to promote the reuse of goods and materials in cities and regions. It was conducted between April and August 2021.

Objectives#

The main goal of reuse.city was to co-design ways to expand the ability to reuse goods and materials in cities and regions, particularly with the aid of networked digital tecnologies. A secondary objective was to investigate social as well as cultural aspects that influence the reuse of goods and materials.

The research objectives are to be accomplished by two complementary sets of activities conducted in parallel:

  • engaging with an international group of participants in a series of meetings and workshops;
  • prototyping speculative technologies to help assess and realise the potential value of goods and materials.

Building on prior stages of research, the reuse.city co-design lab aims at co-designing technologies, methods and communication to promote the reuse of second hand goods and materials in cities and regions through practices of repair, upcycling and re-circulation.

Background#

In earlier phases of this PhD research, two other studies were carried out: the repair journey; and an ecosystem mapping. Respectively, those studies identified participants’ behaviours towards broken objects; and how unwanted materials circulate in society before they are discarded.

Building on such prior activities, reuse.city was created to co-design technologies, methods and communication that promote the reuse of second hand goods and materials in cities and regions through practices of repair, upcycling and re-circulation.

Research questions#

reuse.city seeks to expand understanding of the diverse skills and abilities involved with

  • assessing the potential value of discarded materials.
  • realising that value with the aid of digital technologies.

It is expected to address the following research questions:

  • RQ1: what are the skills involved in the reuse of materials?
    • Can those skills they be augmented and replicated via digital systems?
    • What kind of hardware and software would be necessary for that?
  • RQ2: what kind of facility can help improve the amount of materials that are reused in cities and regions?
    • Are there relevant experiences in place anywhere in the world that can inspire such systems?

Participants#

The reuse.city co-design lab recruited 29 participants from ten different countries in four continents, all of which signed up to the study and filled the consent form. Not all of the people who signed up have engaged with the lab activities.

Recruitment#

The participants of reuse city lab were recruited via social media, invited personally by the researcher or suggested by colleagues and other participants.

Study methodology#

The reuse.city lab approached the research questions from different perspectives.

  • Expanding on original concept ideas developed in the first year of research:
    • The Universal Registry of Things as informational groundwork - a multi-layered database of objects and materials about things and their repairability, spare parts, authorised repair shops, and possibilities for reuse and recycling.
    • Hardware based on the concept of Point and Reuse: a machine that identifies objects against the database and displays information.
  • Conducting meetings and workshops with participants interested in and/or engaged with the reuse of second-hand goods and materials.
  • Prototyping and experimenting with digital technologies to promote the reuse of materials in tandem with a training module on open hardware.
  • An auto-ethnographic exploration of reuse in the city of Berlin, looking at how the prototypes could impact on the reuse of materials.

Output#

Process documentation#

Co-designed updated concepts / prototypes#

Community building#

  • Participants agreed to keep in touch after the study was finished. An e-mail list and a group in Telegram were used for that.