An alternative and holistic approach to automotive design tackling circular economy and sustainability challenges.
At a glance
The project explores how the automotive industry can be transformed by sustainable design and evolve new solutions and strategies leading to holistic, system level transitions towards zero emissions. Specifically, how can we capitalise on the designer’s mindset to facilitate creative and radical approaches, interdisciplinary practice and adopt a more experimental and inquisitive way of working.
- The car needs radical new design approaches to improve circularity and achieve carbon neutrality. Beyond electrification, the sustainable car design needs attention to environmental, economic, socio-ethnic and subjective issues.
- The project explores concepts of Circular Economy, Cradle-to-Cradle, Pace Layering, Design for Disassembly and applies them to automotive design concepts. It investigates circular economy solutions for both biocycles and techno-cycles.
- The project investigates alternative products and aspects of circularity, such as the role of stakeholders on dismantling and recycling, and how to increase the value and application of plant-based materials.
Key details
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The challenge
Creative Sustainability project aims to address gaps of knowledge and opportunities for innovation in automotive design in the circular economy. The objective of the project is to develop circular automotive design solutions considering the quadruple bottom line of sustainability, encompassing environmental, economic, socio-ethic as well as subjective aspects of sustainability.
What we did
The project is structured in two phases of 6 and 12 months, respectively. It explores design practice through all stages of research. The methods include primary and secondary research, automotive design experimentation, workshops, prototyping, testing, analysis, synthesis, and delivery of automotive design concepts.
The first phase of the project (2024) followed the Double Diamond model. The Discover stage focused on Identifying knowledge gaps and challenges. The Define stage focus was on convergence, to be able to consolidate a design brief to be explored in the following stage, Develop. The final stage of the project, Deliver, was focused on producing an automotive design exemplar aiming to embody the findings, directions, and questions to explore on further research on phase two (2025).
Outputs
Design outputs will be communicated at the end of the project.
