Year: 2015
Client: Graduation project
Project: This project originated out of discontent with the current way many objects of our daily environment are being produced in our throw away society. Among those objects is electric waste one of our fastest growing waste streams. in 2013, every person in Belgium produced 22,4 kilo e-waste per person and it’s expected that this number will increase with 33% within 5 years.
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I looked at open design principles and local producing for proposing a way to tackle our electric waste-problem. The growing maker-culture, stimulated by fablabs, hacker- and maker spaces, causes more production knowledge and technologies available for everybody. Files are being shared online so that products and objects can be produced locally. How can this contribute to the producing of qualitative electric products in a social and ecological responsible way?
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My research resulted in the making of an open source coffee machine, of which all parts are available for adjustment or replacement. I tried collecting all parts as locally or environmental friendly as possible. Even though this product is a working prototype, it still could use some improvements. My journey during this project gave insights into the philosophy, economy, responsibility and self sufficiency of being a designer in the current society. So in the end, the coffeemaker was more of a tool for getting to the goal of learning how to make the product by myself and sharing that knowledge, instead of just making the product.
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