Abstract
This thesis engages with notions of material design and the development and delineation of novel design and making strategies that seek to systematically promote and elevate the status of ‘low value’ materials and offer new opportunities for their application - A process that will be referred to as valorisation. The discussion is formed through reflection on a body of historical design-research publications as material objects and exhibitions as well as text outputs that were generated between1996 and 2020. The materials that form the focus of the research are predominantly plastics (specifically Methyl-methacrylate or Acrylic) and what is more broadly termed ‘waste’ materials (that include several different materials including some plastics). My arguments are defined within the historic (and ongoing) research of material objects as ‘outputs’ and ‘vehicles’ that embody and disseminate the research as well as serve as both the method and the apparatus for the research itself - These I refer to as in-forming things. The accumulative researches, publications, reflections and synthesis are in turn expressed as a practical and theoretical Valorisation Design Framework (VDF). The contribution to knowledge claim resulting from this work is proposed as advancing knowledge of:1. Design and making methods that valorise ‘low value’ plastics (specifically Methyll-methacrlate and PETG) as defined and problematised within the literature and by determining specific, novel material attributes, innovative performance potentials, new material configurations and application opportunities.
2. Defined circular design and material methods that valorise waste materials through distinct, defined and repeatable design and making strategies.
3. Contributions to understanding material literacy and meaning-making relative to material selection and user-centred design for product-life extension and material experience design and cited by other scholars.
4. Research findings that synthesise and form a critical, overarching and applicable Valorisation Design Framework (VDF) utilised by academics and industry.
5. And specific making methodologies that contribute to design theory as examples of peer-reviewed Research-through-Design (RtD).
The synthesis of the Valorisation Design Framework embodies and synopsizes incremental contributions claimed through the outputs / publications. The framework has itself been subject to peer review and publication and applied in numerous research-led workshops with industrial brands and design and material-focused organisations. The framework identifies, distils and synthesizes consistent and definable methods for valorisation that have been established through the generation of iterative and incremental research objects / publications. This process of making research through physical means is consistent with the methodological approach and is one of the primary modes of disseminating the research.
| Date of Award | Apr 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Paul Sermon (Supervisor) |