The Playground

Long description

In recent years, working with bio-materials, seeing “waste” as a raw material and the circular economy in general have been gaining importance and interest. However, there are very few spaces giving support for the development of this design field. Makerspaces are often focused on high-end technology (3D printers, laser cutters) and traditional, virgin materials (wood, metal, plastic). While these spaces allow people to create wonderful designs, they are also expensive to use, have a steep learning curve, and are inaccessible to the majority of the public. 

The Playground seeks to address both of these problems by creating a closed loop system that diverts waste from the landfill, allows people to embrace their creativity and establishes a communal point for knowledge sharing. It consists of two parts. Outside in the courtyard there will be collection bins for plastic waste and food waste, a dehydrator, a vermicompost bin and a small garden with herbs and vegetables. The second part is the Makerspace area where the material processing, experimenting, playing and learning will take place.

There will be workshops hosted by students and others with material knowledge to learn about different materials, our relationship with them, and what the potentialities for them are. We want to try and keep everything as low-tech as possible, with the goal that you can go home with this newly acquired knowledge and experiment some more in your kitchen or on your balcony.

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