Project information
Project manager
Donna Maione
Other project members
Mathilda Tham
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University, The Bridge - IKEA
Financier
The Bridge - IKEA
Timetable
15 April 2024–14 April 2026
Subject
Design (Department of Design, Faculty of Arts and Humanities)
Research group
The Bridge
More about the project
The linear supply chain and resource management approach has left indelible marks on the ecosystem, reducing arable land, potable water, and air quality. These consequences of overproduction in a linear system reverberate worldwide and impact daily life. Once these impacts become visible, the damage reverberates into a global crisis that is not easily fixable. These impacts on a global scale have been known for decades, yet we are slow to make the needed changes to reverse damage to the Earth. Mere knowledge of the problem does not prompt new behaviors, habits, and decisions needed for change. This research therefore looks for synergies between knowledge and action in a transition process for meaningful change.
The research Bridge to Circular Textiles looks at the organizing structures and behaviors behind designing for circularity. It explores the synergies between knowledge and action as a transition process for meaningful change.
The project focuses on the challenges and opportunities for designers toward a transition to reducing environmental impacts as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. The aim is to gain a new understanding of circular textile materials and expressions in design and production processes, working with post-consumer textiles as a resource for repair and regeneration.
It is expected to generate tangible insights and tools for industry and design education. In alignment with IKEA's Innovation Ventures' areas of transformation in relationships between actors and shareholders toward regenerative practices, it proposes an ecology of projects that aims to look at the relationships between the material, people, and the environment to highlight the vitality of socio-technical and cultural domains to eliminate post-consumer textile waste.
The project is part of the research in the research group The Bridge.
