UN-WASTE
Senior Design Studio, Boston University 2021
Project by Kylie Carroll and Davide Bianchi
Article written by: Kylie Carroll
We live in a world with limited resources and excessive waste, a deadly combination. For our Impact to Empathy project we decided to explore the ways in which we, as designers, can embrace sustainable modes of creating. Iteration is such a large part of the drafting and creative process, but we also must consider the cost of the materials we use. I do not mean only the financial cost but environmental. This project is dedicated to the idea of un-waste. We challenged ourselves to shift our perspective on disposability and treat materials as sacred.
To gather initial inspiration for our projects each pairing within our Senior Design Studio was instructed to choose and start our process from a work by Hyperakt Studio.
Our initial mind-map was where we were able to flush out any and all of the ideas we had following the selection of the article. We took immediate interest in materials, textures, sustainable habits, and finding ways to minimize our waste. Along with mind-mapping we put together mood boards and started iterating. Our iterations consisted of sketches and forms that we then printed out and presented to our class.
Our mood boards and iteration revealed commonalities between our two trains of thought and from there we were able to hone in on what we wanted to pursue in this project. The first step for us was figuring out how to minimize waste, and that meant repurposing the paper used to print our combined 50 iterations. We were drawn to organic forms, naturalistic colors, and wanted to incorporate fashion into this exploration.
At first it was difficult for us to consolidate our pursuits in a way that made sense, so instead of forcing an end goal in the beginning stages we let the process help decide the product. We began cutting up our iterations into smaller pieces, and from there I bought supplies to make a DIY mould and deckle and began the paper making process. In order to honor our mission we also saved all plastic wrapping and other trash material accumulated in order to be repurposed later.
Our original idea was to repurpose the iterations into new paper and then make a book documenting our process. We looked into the natural ink and dye options we had that would ensure minimal impact on the environment. Craft was very important to us during this exploration and we wanted to make everything ourselves. We landed on vegetable dye and planned on staging a ‘zero waste’ meal as the foundation for this pursuit. Together we bought the ingredients for our meal, which consisted of veggies and fruit, constructed a salad and ate it together. The food waste was what we used to make the dye and all paper products were not thrown out but instead recycled back into the paper-making vat. Even with the concept of a zero waste meal, we still wanted to incorporate fashion into this somehow, so we returned to our materials and considered where we could move from there.
During the process of making paper I had used a white bedsheet to lay and press the drying sheets, so Davide and I decided to repurpose that sheet into a garment. We researched zero waste cuts, or a way of cutting fabric so that it has no excess and creates a basic form, and starting making. From this point on our project fell into place and every decision we made felt informed and intentional. We braided the extra plastic together into stronger strips and used those braided strips to sew the garment together. Neither of us are fashion designers and we just let ourselves create intuitively. Once the jacket was completed we each used our vegetable dye to color and experiment on the jacket.
We documented our entire process with video and also used the paper to make a single edition book. We used the same braided plastic to bind our book together, and described our materials used and zero-waste cut pattern within using ink from blackberries. Overall we are extremely proud of what we were able to create, the process was based in trusting ourselves and acting intuitively. We had a goal of minimizing waste but beyond that allowed for the deliverables to be determined later on in the process.
Final Jacket:
Un-Waste, final book:
Final Video:
