As part of the Design Council’s Dott 07 conference in Newcastle, Cohda Design created the Recycling Factory, a live public display that “allowed visitors a front-row seat in viewing a range of recycled products being born.” Members of the audience were asked to bring along plastic waste that was then transformed by Cohda’s U.R.E. process, creating a range of functional design objects. Culminating two years of research, the aim of U.R.E. (the un-cooled recycled extrude process) is to “(A) view waste packaging as a valuable resource as opposed to an ecological difficulty, (B) utilize the embedded energy present in waste plastics, and (C) generate a new recycled design aesthetic.”

This live-show technique, pioneered by Design Miami/Basel this summer that showcased designers working in open studios throughout the exhibition space, is a new take on the design process, signaling the rise of a “design as performance” model. Over the nine-day event, running from October 20-28, the Cohda space filled what started off as bare display occupied only by a set of machines that would produce these second-life plastic designs.

Along with many individuals and enterprises hoping to spread an awareness of their work and highlight their process, an archive of time-lapse movies from the Recycling Factory can be found on the Cohda website.

+ Cohda

+ Cohda Recycled Plastic RD4 Chair

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