Circular Material Hub - Network & Educational tools for designers to co-create with communities.
The Circular Material Hub is a network platform with educational tools for material and social designers to collaborate with the local community and create circular solutions. By sharing materials and waste knowledge (materials library and hands-on workshops), the project aims to develop multi-stakeholder partnerships and enable the community to engage in meaningful sustainability-related decisions, ensuring equitable environmental and socio-economic outcomes for the present and future.
Local
Netherlands
Wildeman, Nieuw-West Amsterdam
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Daniele Last name: Zulian Gender: Female Nationality: Italy If relevant, please select your other nationality: Brazil Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Wolbrantskerkweg 147 Town: Amsterdam Postal code: 1069CL Country: Netherlands Direct Tel:+31 6 15896952 E-mail:contact@pluralmagazine.net Website:https://www.pluralmagazine.net/
URL:https://www.instagram.com/pluralmagazine/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #circulardesign #regenerativematerials #materialresearch #upcycling #craftsmanship #design #socialdesign
URL:https://www.tiktok.com/@pluralmagazine Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #circulardesign #regenerativematerials #materialresearch #upcycling #craftsmanship #design #socialdesign #exhibitions
Material innovation is evolving with regenerative solutions and reversing the negative global ecological and social impacts. Creating a system for immediate information exchange between designers and researchers is crucial. Still, innovations continue to have a narrow audience. A sustainable & inclusive future requires broader social cooperation, especially in areas with low educational and economic levels, where climate change affects the most inhabitants.
That’s why Plural and The Beach have partnered with the Circular Material Hub. The initiative builds an active network and a circular material programme for social, circular designers & the local community with educational tools – co-learning processes, masterclasses, workshops and a material library – to bring different knowledge and equivalence of perspectives, resulting in the co-creation of design, art & craft.
The initiative encourages the inclusion of different stakeholders with generations of residents and empowers them to achieve circular models by acknowledging waste and bio-based materials.
Based on the democratisation of knowledge, the Circular Material Hub (pilot phase) takes place in Wildeman, a deprived neighbourhood in Nieuw-West Amsterdam. For the social, ecological and economic transformation of the Wildeman community, the Circular Material Hub will provide residents knowledge to reduce waste generated, protect natural resources and optimise energy efficiency. Information that is essential to make circular empowerment achievable.
This fits well in the long-term policy of the district of Nieuw-West and the municipality of Amsterdam. They are developing a programme-based plan where specialised teams focus on safety, housing, employment, opportunities for young people and democratisation/building community wealth.
CIRCULAR MATERIAL INNOVATION
LOCAL COMMUNITY EDUCATION
WASTE REGENERATION
CO-CREATION COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
INCLUSION
CIRCULAR MATERIALS INNOVATION & RESEARCH CONNECTION:
The Circular Material Hub aims to create an active network of leading designers & materials research. Designers connect to analysis and exchange circular knowledge and data to scale them to different contexts.
The initiative collects and transforms research details into a circular material program, accessible open-source documents, connecting different levels of practitioners and hosting meetings, masterclasses and workshops with the local community. The participants transform waste into raw materials and co-create with art, craftsmanship & design.
WASTE REGENERATION & CIRCULAR MODELS: Identifying available waste resources in the local area: With the knowledge of designers shared in the workshops with community residents. Circular Material Hub provides more accessible information about waste and regeneration, encouraging the general public to reflect on the life cycles of products and materials and explore solutions to preserve more natural resources.
CO-CREATION COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT & INCLUSION: Circular Material Hub's goal is for the community & designers to co-create with shared knowledge. As a result, residents have the tools to gain meaningful control over learning. They create a feeling of belonging and visualise potential solutions independently. Community residents, guided by facilitators, can experience the materials through workshops, which enable the co-learning process with hands-on experiences. Bringing different knowledge, backgrounds and perspective equivalence result in a co-creation of design, art & craft, where anyone can participate regardless of country of origin, culture, language, education, or age. People can learn about materials without specific knowledge.
In the pilot phase, The Beach social designers & art educators co-create art and design based on the circular material programme with their existing practice: education in schools & workshops with women, youth and children.
People perceive aesthetics through an emotional reaction. Therefore, aesthetic preferences are personal yet highly influenced by the socio-cultural context.
For the Circular Material Hub, the aesthetics of sustainable and regenerative materials play an essential role as a learning tool.
Unlike mass-produced products, sustainable bio-based matter (e.g Mycelium materials, bacteria colours, bio-matter by algae) and waste follow natural cycles on earth, bringing a unique and organic aesthetic.
Aside from providing an expert network, information and knowledge on circular materials, the material library and workshops expose designers and the local community to resources through co-learning and co-creation experiences.
The learning-by-doing methodology, with the collective creation of crafts, art and design, helps participants interact with their environment to adapt and learn new local contexts. It also maintains participants' engagement with their identity and sense of belonging.
Using all senses, visual, auditory and tactile pathways, this multi-sensory approach demystifies negative perceptions about the waste or bio-based materials aesthetic that are still recurrent in a broad audience.
The project aims to encourage critical thinking and awaken creativity through new aesthetic perceptions.
The Circular Material Hub provides an active network of designers and circular knowledge where data is exchanged, and innovative expertise benefits professionals at various levels.
The project seeks to make information available for designers and, equivalently, for the local community to discover the unseen waste generated in the neighbourhood, its potential and the cultivation of living materials (Mycelium) and regional plants.
With a sensory and 'learning by doing' approach, participants of the Circular Material Hub, through co-learning and co-creating design, art and craft with local circular materials, have the practical tools to understand waste as raw material and the benefits of creating with bio-based materials.
The shared knowledge empowers designers and the local community to gain significant control over their learning, creating and visualising potential solutions independently.
Due to the multi-sensory nature of the workshops and the reduced use of technical language, the Circular Material Hub and participants inherently address the importance of diversity in design.
The initiative is designed to replicate its methodology and approach in other areas with different issues and contexts, where anyone can participate, regardless of country of origin, culture, language, education or age. People can learn about the materials without specific knowledge. During the pilot phase, for one year, the focus of the Circular Material Hub is local designers and residents represented in groups of children, youth, women and local schools based in the Wildeman community. However, according to the results, the project strives to widen community groups after the implementation phase.
The Circular Material Hub offers the community (to start with Wildeman, Nieuw-West, Amsterdam) an experience in circular material design. Designers and residents are exposed to circular processes being available and accessible locally.
Through hands-on workshops, designers and residents co-create designs, art and crafts. As a result, this collective experience connects cultural and artistic dynamics and civic integration with sustainability.
With the designer's network, circular material program, materials library, website, and process documents available, essential implements to amplify collective learning.
By offering circular knowledge in the neighbourhood, residents perceive (short and long terms) physical transformation and the built environment regenerated. Knowing the large amount of garbage discarded in the area, and its social, economic and cultural value, residents reconsider the meaning of the waste and feel responsible and an essential part of the positive changes locally.
Also, by knowing more about the materials, their qualities, and their potential, the neighbourhood's inhabitants and designers understand the risks of materials with high toxicity (like some plastics, for example, material significantly disseminated due to its low cost and accessibility) and have the information to choose regenerative and compostable materials that do not degrade the soil and local waters.
Local communities learn about the transition to circularity and can restore a sense of belonging through design and craft combined with sustainability. By becoming agents of change, the collective has sustainable ambitions, which can be shaped locally in the short and long term.
Social & Material Designers
The research shared within the professional network amplifies results with circular materials & data exchange.
As masterclasses & workshop facilitators, they will be invited to share their research.
Through workshops, they will encounter & share circular solutions for local waste and resources with the local community.
Both Plural and The Beach will do designer searches through their network of circular materials designers.
Wildeman residents
Residents will participate in workshops to gain knowledge, share experiences and co-create with circular materials. The Beach's co-design & crafts workshops with the local community connect ambitions and knowledge with issues in the local context.
The Beach provides workshops for children, youth, and women and collaborates with schools (primary to post-secondary) of Nieuw-West Amsterdam. The Circular Material Hub focuses on these consolidated groups to implement the initiative. The Beach's social designers & art educators will be the facilitators to bring them circular experiences.
Nieuw-West Schools
Primary Schools (6-12)
Secondary School (VMBO) (12-18): Yuverta
Post Secondary School (MBO) (17+) HMC and ROC
The Beach
The social design agency's core is Sustainist Design, which integrates social & ecological sustainability and focuses on connectivity, local values and community, with research & design at its core. Being a partner in the 8-year "Imagination in Transitions" programme, The Beach connects Amsterdam design/art schools & students to the Wildeman community.
The Beach offers space for meetings & a material library.
Plural
Responsible for collecting information & content for the materials library, information from the designers' network, developing a materials guide & promoting the workshops' results online, creating a workshop programme in partnership with The Beach. Plural's founder & designer, Daniele Zulian, will create the initiative's brand identity & website.
Eco-social regeneration: The core objective of the Circular Material Hub is to create opportunities and community capacity to strengthen local social and ecological inclusion and well-being. The initiative proposes that social and material designers engage with the local community to co-restore broken social systems and local ecosystems and co-create and strengthen a sense of belonging and social connection.
Circular economy & sustainability: The initiative aims to educate and exchange knowledge about circular materials with designers and the local community. It will include circular model methods and approaches, such as 'Sustainist Design', 'cradle-to-cradle' and recycling practices.
Educational tools: Based on eco-social regeneration, circular economy and sustainability, the initiative will develop a circular materials programme with a network of designers, along with a materials library and workshops with designers and the local community.
Learning by doing: Using a co-creation approach, different groups will access information about circular materials and co-examine local solutions.
Three types of workshops:
- Masterclasses for designers: These classes will exchange research information on circularity, along with inspiration and collaboration opportunities.
- Training for social designers & art educators: This training aims to guide social designers and art educators, as facilitators of workshops with the local community, in knowing the materials they will need to provide for the workshops.
- Workshops with the local community: Social designers and art educators will co-create art, designs and crafts, employing the circular materials programme in their existing practice, to provide education in schools and workshops with women, youth and children.
The exchange of information about the circular materials programme enables designers and the community to reduce the waste generated, protect local natural resources and optimise energy efficiency.
A new generation of circular economy designers is leading the way in materials science and design innovation, re-evaluating themes and content for a zero-waste future. The Circular Material Hub innovates by collecting leading circular research in the design network, helping designers with information to develop local and sustainable materials, and assessing local waste and resources.
The initiative also organises data & tools for education for various groups in a local area (children, youth, women and schools), cross-referencing information with designers and residents.
The Materials Library enables the creation of an open-source resource map available to designers and the local community on the initiative's website, making innovative, regenerative and compostable materials accessible, thus facilitating design co-creation, empowerment and independence of various social groups.
All information about the materials, documents about the processes, results will be available on the website and download tools that facilitate the understanding and inclusion of various people in the Amsterdam area.
Development of a material guide for workshop facilitators: Includes process steps, tools needed, location of materials in the area, origins, life cycle, durability, ideal conditions for composting and material care, etc. Each series has a guide prepared by an expert designer as an educational tool for a social designer or art educator to accompany practical lessons using the guide.
The collaboration with schools will follow their pedagogical values and curricula.
Cross-referencing all this information in one place makes the Circular Material Hub an accessible network for multiple social sectors. Furthermore, the data collected and shared facilitates the scalability of initiatives and replication to other contexts.
The Circular Material Hub is an initiative to exchange circular knowledge and local education. Therefore, it is essential to highlight that the term local in the project does not represent only a geographical dimension but local connections, relationships, identity and environment.
Creating a designers' network, collecting leading circular research, going into the community, identifying local waste with new potential, building a material library and running masterclasses and workshops can be replicated in different areas and contexts.
Wildeman, Amsterdam Nieuw-West was chosen as the base for the project's pilot phase because two main stakeholders, Plural and The Beach, are located there. Also, Amsterdam is one of 100 cities committed to climate neutrality by 2030.
To achieve the climate plan and ensure that the stipulated targets are met, many initiatives have been created to accelerate the green transition.
Together with the Wildeman district, the Dutch capital has created a partner and pilot location in several EU projects, which include other urban areas with similar characteristics to Wildeman in many European cities. From 2022-2024 with The Beach and welfare organisation SamenWonen SamenLeven the city of Amsterdam is a partner in the New European Bauhaus project DESIRE, enabling sharing of Circular Material Hub with other NEB partners.
Moreover, what is also relevant is that Amsterdam is an active member of Eurocities, was the chair of the social affairs forum and led the City Science Initiative.
In 2023, the Co-Location Center (CLC), the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), Climate-KIC, and Innovation by Creative Economy (ICE) will open in Amsterdam.
The importance of innovative organisations demonstrates that mutual collaboration, from small to large projects, can facilitate scalability in innovation, creating partnerships, sharing data and forming an efficient network to achieve sustainable targets
Pilot Phase:
1. Circular Design Growing Network
An active network of designers & circular knowledge: Experts have developed regenerative & recycling discoveries. The Circular Material Hub's role is to build a data hub; where circular stories can be shared and scaled for different contexts. The initiative collects and transforms information accessible in a circular material program and open-source documents, connecting different levels of designers and hosting meetings to facilitate sharing.
The Plural and The Beach partnership brings stakeholders together and expands circular knowledge. Through long-standing project collaboration, The Beach has collaborated with research resources, such as Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) as well as design studios, schools and institutions that understand the local context.
Plural, through its content/social media, has created a network of designers and researchers involved in circular transition, upcycling and innovation
2. Material Library
Material database - Located at The Beach and accessible for designers and residents.
3. Community & Civic Participation
Residents receive information about sustainability but participate equally with their knowledge shared in a workshop in the existing programme when collaborating with the circular material designers.
The initiative aims at the exchange of cultural knowledge and rescue traditions.
3 types of workshops: The information is crossed & updated with the groups.
- Masterclasses: Leading researchers & designers - Inspirational & Innovative
- Trainer programs: Practical workshops to train & inform social designers & art educators, facilitators of workshops with the local community about a circular material programme.
- Local Community Workshops: Social designers & art educators co-create art, design and crafts with the circular material programme in their existing practice: education in schools & workshops with women, youth and children.
Global Challenges
- Education & skills
- Children & Youth
- Inclusion
- Culture Diversity
- Climate change
- Environment & natural resources
- Green transition (sustainable energy, green cities & skills)
- Circular economy
To achieve the proposed target of Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, we must change current linear forms of production to a circular model. To ensure a green transition, materials research and waste management are essential. However, sharing circular knowledge and resources and teaching new skills is vital to make systemic changes and include all societal sectors.
Through the concept of Eco-Social Regeneration, where transformative processes create community opportunities and capacity to strengthen social and ecological inclusion and well-being, the project aims to increase recognition of the power of locals and maintain a renewed sense of belonging and social connectedness.
Local education, knowledge development and skills centred on circular materials are the project's heart. Based on democratising knowledge, the Circular Material Hub chose Wildeman, Nieuw-West Amsterdam, as its base. Statistics from the area show less social cohesion, with low educational and economic status. The community's social, ecological and economic transformation is critical, and residents should have tools to reduce the waste generated, protect natural resources and optimise energy efficiency.
Material designers share open-source knowledge in the network, masterclasses, workshops and Material Library. The focus of all resources is on the targets: professionals (designers), children, youth, women and schools.
With a circular economy knowledge, children, youth, women and schools will increase their living environment's social and economic value with creative solutions. Residents play a central role and can develop their knowledge to act in favour of positive transitions
The Circular Material Hub aims to create a network of designers and the local community. With co-creation, the project enables the inclusion of various actors and empowers them to achieve circular models.
After the first year of implementation, the project wishes to consolidate further the network created, expand the local groups participating in the circular material programme and scale it in other areas and contexts.
Masterclasses: invited leading designers to share knowledge with peers
Total: 3 events
People: 3
Total hours: 20 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 9000 euros
Material guide for workshop facilitators:
Total: 1 event
Persons: 3
Total hours: 16 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 2400 euros
- Connecting to local communities
Training of the social design & art educator
Total: 3 events
Persons: 3
Total hours: 8 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 3600 euros
Practical Workshops
Total: 3 events
Persons: 3
Total hours: 4 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 1800 euros
Material Library
Design & Production
Total: 1 event
Persons: 2
Total hours: 12 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 1200 euros
Collecting materials
Total: 1 event
Persons: 1
Total hours: 12 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 1200 euros
Communication & Project Branding
Visual Identity
Total: 1 event
Persons: 1
Total hours: 40 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 2000 euros
Website
Total: 1 event
Persons: 1
Total hours: 40 hours
Fee per person: 50 euros. Total: 2000 euros
Overall Costs:
Project management
Total: 1 event
Persons: 1
Total hours: 32 hours
The fee per person is 50 euros. Total: 1600 euros
The Circular Material Hub supports educators in developing their knowledge and skills to teach about material innovation and circular economy; as a result, accessible knowledge to help climate crisis and sustainability goals.
The initiative actively engages local communities with research and project innovation in learning about sustainability. As the educational experiences focus on three different groups (experts, training for educators and practical workshops with the local community), they allow for practical, up-to-date, interdisciplinary and relevant teaching and learning with local contexts, where information is shared equitably and inclusively.
The Circular Material Hub aims to address complexity in sustainability through knowledge of materials and circularity; the project seeks to encourage masterclasses and workshop participants to have systemic thinking, critical thinking and independence to frame issues
