Rossano Ercolini Conference and “Design for Reuse” Exhibition on January 22, 2025

This year the new edition of the Master in Eco-design & Eco-innovation of the School of Architecture and Design of the University of Camerino will be inaugurated on 22 January 2025 with a double opening event: the conference by Rossano Ercolini, President of Zero Waste Italy and Winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize – Alternative Nobel Prize for the Environment, entitled “Manifesto for an ecology of change: repair, reuse and producer responsibility”, which will be held at the Rinascita bookshop at 16.30 pm, and then, following that, the inauguration of the exhibition “Design for Reuse”, which will be held at 18.30 pm at the Sala Cola dell’Amatrice in the Chiostro Maggiore of San Francesco.

Rossano Ercolini’s conference, “Manifesto for an ecology of change: repair, reuse and producer responsibility”, which partly takes its title from his latest book, addresses the issue of the necessary change that we must activate in the face of the current environmental, energy and climate crisis and how a collective awareness is fundamental, which leads us towards alternative development models, towards a circular economy inspired by natural processes and the regeneration of resources. In particular, the role of citizens, young people, and “activists” is crucial, understood not as subversive subjects but as people who dialogue – with citizens and institutions – to put into practice strategies for the development and sharing of sustainable and innovative resources. The conference is an opportunity to reflect on the changes needed to accelerate the transformation of the current socio-economic development model from ‘linear’ to ‘circular’ and to anticipate some key issues for the innovation and development of circular products and services, such as repair, reuse and extended producer responsibility.

The “Design for Reuse” exhibition, it is a collection of products made through the reuse of industrial waste and scraps and components of objects and materials that have reached the end of their useful life. Through a self-production process, which combines the use of artisanal techniques and digital fabrication technologies (additive manufacturing, laser cutting, etc.), the students of the Industrial Design Laboratory 3 of the School of Architecture and Design of Unicam have designed and created useful and innovative products, giving new life to materials and objects that would otherwise have become waste. Collaborating with numerous companies in the Marche region, which have made themselves available for experimentation, the students have collected, selected, studied and reused disused objects, scraps and waste from manufacturing, transforming them into new products: coin purses, flowerpots, seats made with bicycle inner tubes; waterproof sportswear with technical fabrics from worn-out sails; objects for the home and garden with scraps from the denim industry; vase holders with PVC sheets recovered from scraps from companies that set up temporary events; costume jewelry with aluminum scraps from the window and door industry, etc. The “Design for Reuse” exhibition highlights how design and designers can make an important contribution to the transition towards a circular economy, drastically reducing waste production through sustainable design and extending the useful life of products and materials.

These two events are curated and organized by the School of Architecture and Design of the University of Camerino, in collaboration and with the support of partners, institutions, companies and associations: Municipality of Ascoli Piceno, ADI Marche Abruzzo Molise, Marche a Rifiuti zero, Libreria Rinascita, EcodesignLab and Costruire. Furthermore, the two cultural events are part of the project “Vitality. Eco-system of innovation, digitalization, sustainability for the widespread economy of Central Italy” and precisely in Spoke 6, led by the University of Camerino (Principal Investigator: Prof. Flavio Corradini), relating to “Innovation and safety in living environments in the era of digital and ecological transition”, as promotional actions of the Master in Eco-design & Eco-innovation, one of the specialized training courses co-financed by the project.