Designing the Circular Economy at Melbourne Design Week
In partnership with the National Gallery for Victoria, the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre hosted an afternoon of events on Tuesday 22 March 2022 as part of the ‘Designing the Circular Economy Symposium’ for Melbourne Design Week.
Transforming design for daily use
The first event of the series was ‘Transforming design for daily use’. In this session, fashion industry leader Karen Webster led a compelling conversation with a leading panel on circularity in the world of consumer goods. She discussed cutting-edge systems, new material innovation, and strategies for rethinking how we design, manufacture and sell in a circular world.
Panelists shared their personal expertise and inspiration working at the forefront of circular business and design for the everyday. Karen Webster posed several pertinent questions to our panel including how can investment accelerate climate positive businesses? And how can a problem become a solution?
Panelist and company profiles
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Karen Webster is the Dean and Principal of the Melbourne campus of internationally acclaimed Design Institute LCI, fostering innovative and progressive design education.
Karen has been a design advocate and leading academic in Australia’s creative industries for over four decades. She has served on numerous government and industry advisory boards across the creative industries.
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Samantha Seljak is co-founder and managing director of Seljak brand. Together with her sister Karina, she harnesses the value of textile waste to create beautiful products that are circular by design.
Seljak Brand’s award-winning closed loop wool blankets are proving how small business can accelerate the transition to a circular economy and design for limiting global warming.
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Jordy Kay is co-founder of Great Wrap who manufacture home compostable stretch wrap from food waste
Working with a team of scientists and engineers they are proudly developing technology that will change the world, one roll at a time.
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Matt is Interim CEO at Sustainability Victoria. He has spent some 20 years working in sustainability, with a particular bent for delivering a best practice waste and recycling sector that brings true circularity to our material usage.
Matt has spent time in consulting, the not-for-profit sector and more than eight years with Sustainability Victoria.
Relive the event
Watch a recording of the event at Melbourne Design Week.
Circularity for the Built Environment
The next event for the afternoon was ‘Circularity for the Built Environment'. Event moderator Caroline Pidcock introduced the audience to circularity in the built environment from a whole-of-systems approach to scalable, local projects and prototypes.
From regenerative practice and design for dismantling, to cutting-edge data systems that track and trace materials and products, this session explored the possibilities and practicalities of integrating circular design principles into a range of construction and demolition projects. An expert panel of industry leaders shared how they are implementing these solutions here and now.
Panelists shared their personal expertise and explored the possibilities and practicalities of integrating circular design principles into a range of construction and demolition projects.
Panelist and company profiles
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Caroline is the director of PIDCOCK, a practice inspired by the possibilities of creating places that demonstrate how the many issues that are fundamental to sustainability can be potent and profound influences.
A past president of the AIA NSW and ASBEC, Caroline is also Chair of 1 Million Women, member of government design panels and lecturer at a number of architecture schools.
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Joan Ko is Arup’s Climate and Sustainability Services Leader in Australasia. She specialises in leading multidisciplinary teams that work across environment and economics. Joan is particularly experienced in city-scale and precinct planning for sustainability.
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Robbie Neville is the founder of Revival Projects, a sustainable building practice with a mission to transform the construction industry. Revival Projects provides unique services to the demolition, building, and object design industries at a domestic and commercial scale.
From salvaging materials to structural engineering and manufacture, Robbie and his team offer a one stop-shop when it comes to more sustainable alternatives in the construction process.
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Ross Harding is Principal at Finding Infinity and a creative sustainability consultant with an academic background in mechanical engineering and finance.
Finding Infinity provides self-sufficiency advice, with projects ranging from houses to city blocks.
Relive the event
Watch a recording of the event at Melbourne Design Week.
Regenerative Design with Sarah Ichioka
To close the Designing the Circular Economy symposium at Melbourne Design Week, Caroline Pidcock was joined by Sarah Ichioka live from Singapore to discuss how regenerative design can fundamentally change the way we live.
In this presentation Ichioka discussed the ideas behind her new book Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, co-authored with Michael Pawlyn. Flourish proposes a paradigmatic plan for designers, clients and change agents alike to build a thriving future, together.
The big question that opened the conversation was: what will it take to restore balance to our world for future generations’ survival?
Sarah’s keynote shared compelling approaches to restoring ecosystems, reuniting divided communities, and reciprocally enhancing the interdependent health of people, place and planet. This approach to the built environment may be just what the planet needs.
Speaker and company profiles
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Caroline is the director of PIDCOCK, a practice inspired by the possibilities of creating places that demonstrate how the many issues that are fundamental to sustainability can be potent and profound influences.
A past president of the AIA NSW and ASBEC, Caroline is also Chair of 1 Million Women, member of government design panels and lecturer at a number of architecture schools.
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Sarah Mineko Ichioka is a strategist, urbanist, curator and writer. She is Founding Director of Desire Lines, a consultancy for environmental, cultural, and social-impact organizations and initiatives.
In previous roles, she has explored the intersections of cities, society and ecology within leading international institutions of culture, policy and research. She is co-author of Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency (2021) with Michael Pawlyn.
Ichioka has been recognized as a World Cities Summit Young Leader, one of the Global Public Interest Design 100, and a British Council / Clore Duffield Cultural Leadership International Fellow. She holds degrees from Yale and the LSE.
Relive the event
Watch a recording of the event at Melbourne Design Week.