This research project focussed on discarded clothing and textiles, as signifiers for the lowest exchange value in the fashion system, and sought methods to add value by up-cycling1 into one of a kind fashion garments. Opportunities to add value were investigated with three main ideas emerging which include up-cycling the visual appearance of the garment or textiles through restyling, user interaction, and creating a narrative for the garment. The practice focussed on developing methods to incorporate these concepts as a way of extending the life of low value textiles into items that could be re-introduced into the fashion cycle2. Walker (2008) suggests that by conveying the story of a product to the consumer, the perception of value increased, and opportunities to explore this concept were investigated during the project. Experimentation with a variety of materials and techniques resulted in developing a method to re-fabricate3 threadbare and stained garments into a new material. User participation4 was investigated as a way to ‘add value,’ as it was hoped that by enabling the user to interact with the design they would value the item more. Exploring this concept led to the development of a range of garments and garment kits that enabled the user to learn techniques and make garments using discarded textiles and clothing. The garments and kits were developed using methods and techniques that could be easily mastered and used materials that would be readily available to the user. The development of the garment kits reframed the user as a designer/maker, which is sometimes referred to as participatory design,5 and Followed Fletcher’s (2008) directive that for practical reasons, the methods need to be low tech and inexpensive. A group of research participants trialled the garment kits, made their own garment and provided feedback, which informed the final phase of the project and the development of revised kits and garments. The project suggests potential opportunities for the fashion designer may exist by focussing on the use of existing resources and heightened user connectivity in the design of garments.

This research project focussed on discarded clothing and textiles, as signifiers for the lowest exchange value in the fashion system, and sought methods to add value by up-cycling1 into one of a kind fashion garments. Opportunities to add value were investigated with three main ideas emerging which include up-cycling the visual appearance of the garment or textiles through restyling, user interaction, and creating a narrative for the garment. The practice focussed on developing methods to incorporate these concepts as a way of extending the life of low value textiles into items that could be re-introduced into the fashion cycle2. Walker (2008) suggests that by conveying the story of a product to the consumer, the perception of value increased, and opportunities to explore this concept were investigated during the project. Experimentation with a variety of materials and techniques resulted in developing a method to re-fabricate3 threadbare and stained garments into a new material. User participation4 was investigated as a way to ‘add value,’ as it was hoped that by enabling the user to interact with the design they would value the item more. Exploring this concept led to the development of a range of garments and garment kits that enabled the user to learn techniques and make garments using discarded textiles and clothing. The garments and kits were developed using methods and techniques that could be easily mastered and used materials that would be readily available to the user. The development of the garment kits reframed the user as a designer/maker, which is sometimes referred to as participatory design,5 and Followed Fletcher’s (2008) directive that for practical reasons, the methods need to be low tech and inexpensive. A group of research participants trialled the garment kits, made their own garment and provided feedback, which informed the final phase of the project and the development of revised kits and garments. The project suggests potential opportunities for the fashion designer may exist by focussing on the use of existing resources and heightened user connectivity in the design of garments.

Contemporary outreach services focus on prevention as a means to ending homelessness (Averill, Keys, Mallet, & Rosenthal, 2010; Gaetz, 2010; Higgitt, Ristock & Wingert, 2005). As a result, services are commonly aimed at youth to provide alternatives to street-life before negative patterns are ingrained; the emotional effects of homelessness are also starting to be addressed. Drop-in facilities are proving useful by responding with greater flexibility toward the inconsistent lives of homeless people (Bantchevska, Dashora, Garren, Glassman, Slesnick & Toviessi, 2008). Art programming offers an environment addressing both emotional concerns and technical skill development (Higgitt, Ristock & Wingert, 2005). In Winnipeg, MB, urban, youth street-culture has responded positively to drop-ins embodying Hip-Hop culture as the unifying theme (B. Veruela, personal communication, November 7, 2012). Hip-Hop provides a context for art and learning that incorporates belonging and growth - the identifiers of a playful space. Play spaces offer a positive environment for dealing with emotionally charged topics such as homelessness (Apter, 1991; Kerr, 1991). This project presents the adaptive reuse of one of Winnipeg’s industrial buildings as a modern drop-in centre where emotional care for youth is accommodated through play theory.

In our practice the choice of materials is mostly driven by practical reasons, aesthetics and a given budget, and it is often applied rather at the end of the process – rarely is it the driver of any design process. What often gets forgotten is that materials can carry an immaterial layer of connotations. This means that materials are not perceived neutrally but are instead always loaded with certain meanings and values we attribute to them which in return can evoke different emotions in us. In my thesis project I explore the effect of analternative design process that uses materials as the point of departure.Through experimental explorations I have produced my own materials and investigated possibilities to use them in a spatial context. I created different scenarios to speculate about the potential these materials could have. Could they become applicable materials for interior and furniture design as well as for being a carrier of meaning?

The growing demand for fast fashion and chea pgarments has led to a system of overproduction and overconsumption leaving tons of discarded textiles in landfills every year. This project investigates how textile waste can be up-cycled and redesigned into fashionable garments of higher value by merging textiles and applying surface design techniques. In this project two techniques were explored in relation to up-cycling, slashing and printing. Printing as a method to give new print designs and slashing as a tool to merge textiles together and create patterns and textures aiming to find new surface expressions and challenge the current up-cycling aesthetic. The outcome of the collection reveals various ways one can work with slashing and printing as a method to transform and elevate different types of garments and materials found within discarded textiles. It shows an example of how material exploration can guide the way to create garments and that by mixing textile design and fashion design one can explore different properties simultaneously.

Throughout the last decades the linear urban development in Stockholm can be retraced to the idea of supply and demand, society’s view on the elimination of risk, while increasingly detaching from natural processes. This thesis offers a critical evaluation of the socio-economic situation of space production, while trying to argue for a new semantic recodification of urban organisational processes while reconnecting to a socio-biodiverse narrative. Through the research, the defining parameters and actors of space production and urban planning are examined on their participational, circular and inclusive potential. Motivated by the need to renegotiate the current narrative of architecture, the site of exploration is Bergs Hamn in Nacka, an industrial oil cistern park built in the 50s. The project aspires to find new ways of thinking and communicating architecture within and outside of the academic field through architectural and theoretical actions and interactions, writing and dreaming about space as a fluid and changeable matter.

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The project elaborates design opportunities for a future practice that could promotealternative sustainable lifestyles on waste handling through up-cycling activities. It doesthis on a small scale through engagement in the local communities of the Hildaneighborhood and Segepark students’ accommodations in Sweden. To thesecommunities, creative-up-cycling is explored which it introduced here as an approachwhere neighbors can participate in making new things from leftover materials. Throughthis work creative-up-cycling is a proposed recommendation for a possible service systemon how to share the leftover materials in the local resident’s communities, as well as, howto remake the items no longer needed.The empirical studies explore maker culture lifestyles and include how to find leftovermaterials, tools, space, and skills in order to guide people in creative-up-cyclingalternatives. These creative activities also build social relationship via the integration ofmultidisciplinary citizens who are living in the same community and explorations weredone on how could we elicit the skill sets from those people? What is a useful skill set inthis area today? Values like mutual physical experience, reciprocity, and ownership couldalso be found along the empirical workshops in this project. Additionally, this reportshows some interesting findings pointing towards the design process and the suggestionsof design elements; ‘Co-storage’, ‘Mix and Match furniture shop’, and ‘Renovation andup-cycling’ concept elements.Participatory design (designing with people) has been the core approach in this project.Additionally, I have been influenced by user-centered design, as well as service designapproaches in order to comprehend the services, system and activities of recycling andup-cycling in cities like: SYSAV, STPLN, Cykelköket, Återskapa, Toolpool. The findingpresented here are examples of practices that could make up the composition of recyclingand up-cycling activities in future local communities.