Workplace Plasticity: Furnishing the Net-Zero Office through Robotic Fabrication
Researcher
Iain Maxwell, Sam Tomkins and Ben Ennis-Butler
Published
23 November 2022
Funding
Strategic Grant
The high turnover of Australia’s commercial office space represents an often overlooked component of the built environment’s ecological footprint. Drawing upon circular-design strategies, Workplace Plasticity offers an approach to the design and fabrication of common workplace elements using recyclable Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) plastic.
Through the materialisation of innovative and functional prototypes, Maxwell, Tomkins and Ennis-Butler demonstrate a design-fabrication-ecology that responds to the specific environmental challenges of office fit-out churn, manages embodied carbon and significantly reduces waste via the reutilisation of technical nutrients (i.e. recyclable material).
This research suggests that circularity offers designers a transformative lens through which to embrace and harness the indeterminant lifespan of workplace furnishings whilst championing a materially-responsible future.
