Design for repair as a strategy to foster sustainable user behavior: a case of undergraduate product design studio

Abstract

Increased frequency of product replacement in a consumerist society eventually leads to unbearable sustainability problems. Manufacturing and sales-focused linear economies give insufficient concern to the use phase and afterlife of products. Fewer consumers engage in the practice of repair to increase product longevity. On the contrary goal of a circular economy is producing less waste through increasing connections between product lifecycles, which makes product afterlife a crucial debate. In the circular design literature, modularity, material selection and disassembly properties of products are often highlighted. However, the practice of repair is often neglected in sustainable product design researches. This paper focuses on design strategies to enhance the reparability of products to support circular user behavior. Major design strategies to change user behavior towards repairing are discussed. The process and outcomes of undergraduate product design focused on design for repair presented.