[RE]Maker

In Australia, over 1,000 tonnes of sports equipment and 210,000 tonnes of clothing end up in landfills each year. The [RE]Maker project at The University of Melbourne addresses these undervalued waste streams by exploring ways to upcycle surplus materials into architectural elements for the built environment.

Led by Dr Sofia Colabella, [RE]Maker pioneers a new approach to sustainable design through prototyping with surplus materials sourced from manufacturers and consumers. The project advances material circularity in architecture by developing design-driven methods to transform textile and sporting goods waste into valuable architectural components.

The project's key goals are:

1. Investigate the state-of-the-art in reuse and remaking from surplus materials in small-scale architectural and creative enterprises to inform the establishment of new material circularity pathways.
2. Demonstrate through prototyping how surplus materials from industrial processes can be transformed into a revenue stream in architecture (waste into wealth)
3. Demonstrate how cross-industry collaboration for repurposing surplus materials in architecture can help shape future circular design workflows and pathways

This project takes an exploratory and experimental approach to transforming textile waste into architectural elements such as wall coverings, furniture, and pavilions. Using surplus neoprene from the Rip Curl wetsuit repair centre and discarded wetsuits, the project new upcycling processes that add value to waste rather than downcycling it. The project will enable capacity development in circular design, and through the public showcase of outcomes, instigate behaviour change with respect to how we approach material recycling in this context.