Sustainable Design
This page presents some of the sustainable design-oriented projects that I completed during my studies. They include a toaster redesign whereby LCA's were used to reduce product impact and a biomaterial project exploring alternative materials.
Toaster Redesign
This assignment focused on the redesign of an existing product with the aim of improving its sustainability and reducing its overall environmental impact. The project adopted a strong engineering perspective, emphasising the importance of understanding manufacturing processes, material selection, and product life cycles when designing more sustainable solutions.
A major component of the assignment involved the use of life cycle assessments to evaluate the product’s impact across multiple areas, including material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, usage, and end-of-life disposal. This process highlighted how design decisions can influence environmental performance at every stage of a product’s lifespan.
Through the project, I developed a deeper understanding of sustainable design principles and the complexities involved in balancing environmental improvements with practical considerations such as cost, manufacturability, durability, and user needs. It reinforced the idea that sustainable design is not always about making a single “perfect” choice, but rather carefully weighing the benefits and trade-offs of different design decisions to achieve the most effective overall outcome.
Above is a look at some of the data collected from the life cycle assessments. I learned how to input all the materials and their weights. From there, we estimated travel duration and manufacturing processes and determined possible impact.
We also redesigned the product in CAD, changing some of the features and trying to reduce energy consumption and material waste.
Overall, this assignment was useful in showing me how to analyse a product and make a meaningful impact.
Bio Material Exploration
The brief required us to develop our own biomaterial and create an artefact that demonstrated its properties, capabilities, and potential applications. For this project, I experimented with creating a form of bio-concrete using a mixture of sand, flour, and starch. The process involved extensive material testing and iteration to better understand how different ratios and compositions affected the strength, texture, durability, and overall behaviour of the material.
The assignment provided valuable insight into emerging sustainable material practices and highlighted the innovative developments currently taking place within biomaterial research. It also reinforced the importance of experimentation and hands-on exploration within the design process, particularly when working with unconventional materials.
Beyond the material itself, the project strengthened my ability to document testing, analyse outcomes, and communicate the development process clearly. Overall, it expanded my understanding of sustainable material exploration and demonstrated how alternative materials can open new possibilities for environmentally conscious design.
The experimentation process involved a lot of iterations and trying different things. Adjusting ratios and mixtures as well as basic strenght testing.
Ultimately, I created a scale model of a plinth/table using the bio-concrete material I developed throughout the project. The process allowed me to experiment with moulding techniques and surface finishes, resulting in a material that achieved both a unique texture and a strong structural form.
One of the most successful aspects of the project was the material’s durability. I was able to drill into the bio-concrete while maintaining its structural integrity, demonstrating its potential as a functional material rather than simply a conceptual experiment. The piece has remained intact to this day without crumbling or breaking, reinforcing the effectiveness of the material composition and manufacturing process.
Its weakness however, is water.
