An Effort to Bury a Throwaway Culture One Repair at a Time
Amsterdam’s Repair Cafe encourages people to bring old items that they might have otherwise thrown out to have them restored by expert volunteers.
Read the article at NYT:
Repair Café
Platform21 = Repairing started with the idea that repair is underestimated as a creative, cultural and economic force.
If we don’t consider repair a contemporary activity we will loose an incredibly rich body of knowledge – one that contributes to human independence and pleasure.
The situation is especially puzzling when you consider current global interest in other ideas related to sustainability, such as recycling and the cradle-to-cradle philosophy.
With Platform21 = Repairing we aimed to raise awareness of a mentality, a culture and a practice that not so long ago was completely integrated into life and the way we designed it.
In the hope of spurring a reappraisal of repair, Platform21 wrote and published a manifesto describing the benefits of fixing things and calling upon designers and consumers to break the chain of throwaway thinking.
Throwaway thinking, a culture in itself almost, is designed to cater to short term needs of both industry, politics and society. But by being very successful at short term effects it has lost track of the innumerable and rich possibilities that lie ahead if durable notions of design in general, and repair especially, are reconsidered and implemented.
In the slipstream of the Repair Manifesto Platform21 organized workshops, an exhibition, lectures and repair evaluation clinics both with professional designers, students, amateurs, as well as the general public.
It is in the richness of the pallet we wanted to present, from the mildly absurd positions of some of the participants involved, to the completely functional, logical and directly implementable techniques of others. Maybe the most important quality of repair is to give your products a longer life, but this is not the only quality. Repairing adds your personality to products, teaches us how things are made and how to take care of things. It gives a sense of accomplishment and control, and not least important, it is fun.
Nenhum comentário :
Postar um comentário