The Regenerative Fashion Hub opens at Rich Mix
Explore the future of sustainable fashion and textiles 23 February - 21 March 2024
Photo by: Gianni Diliberto
Circular Materials Design Toolkit: creative material differentiation and material longevity in a circular economy
You are invited to participate in a research study conducted by Dr Miriam Ribul, Roberta Morrow and Chiara Tommencioni Pisapia (directed by Professor Sharon Baurley, who may or may not be present), from the the Royal College of Art, as part of the Materials Circularity (MC) research strand of the UKRI-funded Interdisciplinary Textiles Circularity Centre (TCC) (in partnership with the universities of Cranfield, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, York, UCL), and the BBSRC-funded Bio-manufacturing Textiles from Waste project (in partnership with the universities of York and Leeds).
The Circular Materials Design Toolkit study will inspire creative material differentiation and material longevity in a circular economy with apparel design brands and materials start-ups. Participants will use the TCC Materials Library to understand materials and manufacturing processes developed in the TCC Materials Circularity research strand. By reconsidering process flows and value chains in the garment design process, participants will design applications for novel materials and processes.
Participants invited to join this study will be experts in their own field, which includes an industry representative from apparel/design brands, and/or material start-ups, and/or working with repair of apparel/textile products. In the study, you will be working with other industry participants from design/apparel brands in individual, pair and group sessions of up to 9 participants per study to map your current production process flow and to evaluate how the TCC materials and manufacturing processes create new value chains and process flows.
Research Question: How can we map alternative apparel and material process flows for CE using TCC materials and manufacturing processes?
Methodology: We will use participatory and user-centred design approaches to map your questions and design process/experience using materials within an alternative apparel production process flow by using the bio-processes, the TCC Materials library and workshop tools.
Participants will use worksheets, the Circular Materials Design Toolkit cards, value chain and process flow diagrams, the TCC Material library of cards, as well as blank cards to capture their experience in an apparel and textile/material design process and how the TCC MC materials and processes and the BBSRC Bio-manufacturing Textiles from Waste project can enable creative differentiation as well as material longevity, and inform new value chains with reduced processing steps and creative interventions.
The study will be structured into the following stages:
- Activity 1: You will use worksheets to understand and apply a material and process of the TCC Materials Library of cards (a TCC library of cards specifying TCC materials and manufacturing processes and possibilities of these processes) you will select in the study by answering questions, describing and/or drawing potential applications that enable material longevity. This will be followed by a feedback session in the group of participants.
- Activity 2: You will then use worksheets to consider applications of the chosen material/process by answering questions, and then use a worksheet to suggest how the TCC MC materials and processes would enable creative differentiation in a circular economy. You can add these worksheets to the materials library in the space to illustrate potential specifications of textiles and processes in the MC.
- Activity 3: You will be asked to map your current apparel and material process flow using the Circular Materials Design Toolkit and illustrating or writing on blank cards. You will then use the selected TCC materials and manufacturing processes – placing cards in the relevant step, and then draw how this alters the process flow, followed by feedback. You will then identify problem points in this new process flow (choosing from the Tech, Money, Skills, Time, Culture, or Other cards), and suggest possible solutions to these problem points, by marking them on the flow diagram, as well as their value and circularity potential. This will be followed by a feedback session. We will photograph the storyboards in each iteration.
These activities will take place in the TCC Regenerative Fashion Hub based at The Lab E20.
The aim of the studies is to identify novel applications of alternative material production models and to inform the design of materials and processes in alternative value chains, as well as the technologies that will enable these, in the TCC and BBSRC projects.
When: Wednesday 16th or Wednesday 23rd of November 2022, 9:30-14:00
Where: TCC Regenerative Fashion Hub at The Lab E20 (3-4 East Park Walk, Stratford, London E20 1J)
Closer tube: Stratford /Stratford International
Past event.
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The Regenerative Fashion Hub showcases circular bio-based textile designs, product and consumer experience designs, and alternative local economy supply chain systems based on a 'social production network'.