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Looplab is an urban design lab where project-conceivers and creators explore low environmental impact processes and eco-DIY approaches as sources of motivation and reflection.
Looplab leaves the traditional conception-process behind : the material research comes prior to the project, and conception tends to rely firstly on available materials and their possible combinations.
Loop uses Rotor, a material-database containing hundreds of products from reliable sources of industrial leftovers and surplus.
Looplab
37, rue de la caserne
Kazernestraat 37
1000 Bruxelles
email
Redesigning matters
Dealing with questions about uniqueness, soul and originality, redesigning industrial surplus is getting
more famous. Some products (freitag bags are the most famous exemple) have successfully used that approach,
but the possibilities are just being explored.
Even in optimized production processes, the end of the roll, the lost edges, the slightly malformed items,
represent an accepted percentage of loss. Rejected as litter, it has a cost to our economy for evacuation,
burning and landfill. In the best case, this litter has a zero-cost for the owner, when certain firms
collect, 'remelt' and recycle the material. The conclusion is very simple: industrial production of
standardised items produces large quantities of standardized litter.
Working with those leftovers leaves the traditional conception process behind : the material comes before the project
(conception tends to rely first on available materials and their possible combinations), looking for an
existing demand for which that material is the perfect solution. Every stable source of uniform litter
becomes a source of raw material, and can be used by the "redesigner". He transforms litter into economical interesting products, thereby pleasing its owner and seducing the editor of his projects (lowering the production costs).
The possibilities in an industrial context are very large, but Looplab focuses on a direct consumer-target. As
stated above, the mass-consumption boredom has led to a demand for originality, soul and uniqueness. The
former life of a product becomes an valuable argument, but only if the ergonomical, practical and esthetical
side of the product are fully adapted to an urban and contemporary lifestyle.
LoopLab deals with these questions, combined with a challenge to make a product realizable in minutes, with
a budget of some euros...
Looplab Redesign workshop
Ten creators receive material, tools, work space, and a budget to create appealing and viable products based on industrial leftover materials...
Interested in giving a second life to doomed materials, with a no-nonsense approach to environmental impact, a sense of functionality, and a taste for elegant solutions ?
The participants get:
- theoretical and practical background by means of conferences (during the Basurama festival)
- access to the workshop/tools in the PlanB during 6 weeks, and full access to the Rotor material database
- a research budget, prototyping budget
- possibility to ask guests/assistance during the research
- permanent visibility during the process, and exhibition during the Maiis festival
- extra support in production and distribution if needed
The workshops, results, drafts, embryos,.. will be visible and streamed.
