Elisava Material Depot

ELISAVA, Barcelona School of Design and Engineering
Design schools generate a significant amount of waste during prototyping and experimentation activities. Designers also define how future users relate to the products they develop and are therefore indirectly responsible for future waste generation. To reduce waste generation at Elisava, the Elisava Material Depot centralizes the storage and redistribution of reusable materials from university activities. Students donate materials they no longer need, while a student assistant organizes them into labeled drawers and registers them weekly in an online catalog. Students and teachers can use any material available in the Depot free of charge.
Bioeconomy
0
Ecodesign
Low-impact Textiles
Artificial Intelligence
0
Digital Product Passport
0
Traceability
0
Circular Business Models
0
Life-Cycle Thinking
The Elisava Material Depot enables the direct reuse of materials within a design and engineering school. Students reduce the amount of money they need to spend on prototype materials while developing through the use of discarded materials, allowing them to create value from resources that are normally considered waste. The Depot was inaugurated in December 2024. Its popularity has meant that weekly catalog updates fail to register almost half of the material that passes through the storage space. The project encourages resource reuse, frees up workshop space, helps maintain order, and promotes responsible resource use among students. The dedicated space for material circulation and the online catalog differentiate the Depot from conventional practices of storing materials for potential future reuse. The project extends beyond the university through collaborations with external companies that donate residual materials for students to repurpose. This network strengthens relationships with local companies and makes the research conducted within Waste Driven Design and Research through Material Design more visible.  
The design choice is supported by measurement through simplified or partial indicators. During the first fall semester after its launch, the Elisava Material Depot registered more than 830 items that were entered into and taken out of the online catalog. The materials most frequently recirculated were wood, approximately 40%, followed by plastics, approximately 20%, and metals, approximately 15%. The project is ongoing, and its success has made collaboration with a nearby recycling center necessary. Future developments include expanding the material catalog through additional donor companies and improving cataloging procedures with IT support.

TEAM
Isabel Ordoñez Pizarro; J. A. Noel Diaz Castañon; Jhonson Camillo Quintero Tovar; Daniel Quesada Moreno; Judit Gonzalez Bertran; Attassa Cabrera Perez; Jon Hill; Noemi Campos; Lena Fernandez; Dylan Griggs.