From 25 to 29 June 2018, I led the workshop Towards 2050 – Design for the Circular Economy. The workshop took place in Venice at the University Iuav of Venice. The workshop was attended by 36 students from the degree course in Industrial Design and Multimedia of the Iuav University of Venice.
The students were divided into five groups and each group was introduced to a design challenge regarding the themes of circular design (where products and services are designed to decouple economic growth and the use of raw materials) with a view towards 2050. The five challenges proposed to participants were: Proteins for all (change customers food habits), Rewind (design a circular fan), Reborn (design a circular toy), Typo (design a B2B office furniture systems), and Reshoes (design a circular trainers shoes). Each challenge considered not only the circularity but also future scenarios for 2050.

The workshop used Google’s Sprint method to solve these challenges. The Sprint is a five-day process for answering business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with “customers”. In five days, the groups created promising solutions, chose the best concept to be developed and built a realistic circular prototype. Each group interviewed five potential customers to test their product. For the interview groups prepared not only a prototype but also storytelling to help interviewees in contextualise themself in the future. This exercise helped also participants to image realistic futures.