Teaching sustainability through materials: bridging circular materials and bio-design for new design curricula

Abstract

This work presents the pedagogical approach and the outcomes of a course aimed at teaching sustainability through the lenses of materials. The last decade has been crucial to finally reach a mature state of awareness of how the material side of our productions and its poor management is at the base of many environmental problems. Such awareness pushed the emergence of new materials, motivated by the search for more sustainable alternatives and a re-evaluation of biological processes capable of creating materials and artifacts through bio-based and biofabrication techniques. The clear environmental crises also pushed the design field to pay more attention to materials; but to date, for designers, understanding the sustainability of materials and their real impact on life cycle products is still not trivial; new biotechnologies are opening up the possibility for designers to experiment with organic sources and living materials.