Design cultures of repair and care

Abstract

Being part of cultures that knew how to mend and restore enabled the collective care for the artifact. Gradually these cultures became techno-centric and disconnected from the process of making. They became entangled in the pursuit of an end product, progressively stripped from its cultural and physical properties and turned into a generic, globalised ‘thing’. The devaluation of repair and the uncritical acceptance of obsolescence are signs of the inability of individuals and societies to identify, that which is being lost, especially in current circumstances of ecological degradation, climatic disasters and pandemics. Against this backdrop, the ‘Repair + Share = Care’ project explored the potential of reviving a culture of care by bringing to the fore practices of repair and preservation of materials, food and land, still held by refugees and asylum seekers situated in Brisbane. Their exchanges with local practitioners highlighted the overlooked wealth of vernacular knowledge that exists in multiethnic (but monocultural) Australia and made evident the environmental and social value of repair. Furthermore, the resourcefulness of the practices and the stories that accompanied them led to a gradual transformation of the participants into a community of sharing, exposing the possibility of alternative everyday designs grounded in frugality and conviviality.

The ‘Repair + Share = Care’ project was aligned with social design, which identifies design as a vehicle to “make change happen towards collective and social ends, rather than predominantly commercial objectives” (Armstrong et al. 2014, p. 15) and sustainable design via an emphasis on repair skills, circular economy and design for longevity.