Playful Repair - Building a Repair Language for Plastic

ELISAVA School
Plastic furniture is often discarded after minor damage because plastic lacks an established repair culture. Unlike wood, ceramics, or textiles, repair methods for plastic are usually limited to adhesives or replacement, encouraging disposal rather than continued use. This project addresses the challenge of extending the lifespan of plastic furniture by introducing a new repair language using recycled plastic. It belongs to the furniture and materials sectors, contributing to circular design by promoting repair, reuse, and material recovery instead of replacement.
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Bioeconomy
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Ecodesign
Low-impact Textiles
Artificial Intelligence
Digital Product Passport
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Traceability
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Circular Business Models
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Life-Cycle Thinking
Playful Repair explores repair as a circular design strategy rather than a final treatment. Discarded plastic furniture and post-consumer plastic waste are collected and transformed into repair materials through material experimentation. Instead of hiding damage, repairs become visible and expressive, encouraging longer product lifespans and stronger emotional attachment. The project developed a series of Repair Recipes that can be adapted to different plastic types and repair situations, creating a repeatable repair methodology. Within the waste hierarchy, the project prioritizes repair and reuse before recycling by keeping existing products in use for as long as possible. Recycling is applied to generate repair material, allowing waste plastic to remain within the material loop while avoiding the production of new virgin materials. Unlike conventional plastic repair methods that focus on restoring objects invisibly or replacing damaged parts, Playful Repair celebrates repair as a visible design language. The project does not present a single repaired object but proposes an open repair methodology through Repair Recipes, making the approach adaptable to different products and contexts.  
The design choice is supported by measurement through a full life-cycle assessment (LCA). Playful Repair resulted in a repeatable repair methodology, a collection of Repair Recipes, and three repaired plastic furniture prototypes. The project extends product lifespans by prioritizing repair before recycling and uses post-consumer plastic waste as repair material instead of virgin plastic. Material experiments demonstrated multiple repair possibilities for different damage scenarios, creating a transferable framework rather than a single design outcome. The project is currently at the exhibition and dissemination stage, with submissions to international platforms and opportunities for future educational workshops, repair toolkits, and collaborations with circular design initiatives.  

TEAM
YaChi Chen.