Regenerative Product Design: a Literature Review in an Emerging Field

The term “regenerative” refers to a process that repairs, recreates or revitalises its own sources of energy or air, water or any other matter (Attia, 2018). Regenerative systems can be defined in different scales depending on the temporal and spatial framing; the most common are local, regional and global. Accommodating a transition towards a regenerative future entails understanding regenerative practices, not only on a higher system level but also the materials in a product and how they affect the user's behaviour and interaction with the product. In a regenerative future, good intentions must be transformed into responsible behaviour. The first step is to recognise that a sustainable future needs transforming, not only physical infrastructures but also social structures (Regenesis Group, 2016). If we do not address intangibles like motivation, will and behaviour, the tangible solutions that seem so obvious will continue to elude us. The users' behaviour becomes an essential part of the system by facilitating changed perceptions and behaviours from the current take-make-dispose culture towards environmental and circular user behaviours, e.g. care, maintenance and emotional bonds with a product as the first step towards regenerative practices. Design for behavioural change provides methods that identify the driver for users and strategies to encourage desirable environmental and circular behaviours. Increasing the environmental awareness amongst users has shown to be an efficient strategy (Mugge, 2018; Gomes et al., 2022). According to Wahl (2016), reconnecting with nature is a precondition to achieving a regenerative global and local system. The regenerative architectural framework developed by Mang and Reed (2012) states that it demands a radical change in the designer's mindset and stresses the importance of how designers interpret the user's role in a built environment. In the literature, regenerative materials are in general defined as (1) can be sourced sustainably, (2) used efficiently, and (3) recycled or repurposed at the end of their life cycle (Wahl, 2016). In material design, there are emerging approaches, e.g. bio-fabrication (Collet, 2021), livingness in materials (Karana et al., 2023), DIY materials (Rognoli & Ayala-Garcia, 2021) organic waste streams as material resources (Asbjorn-Sorensen & Thyni, 2020) and established methods like Material Driven Design (Karana, 2010) that could be useful in regenerative design practices. The study concludes that within the field of architecture, literature provides rich theory, case studies and guidance for, e.g., the selection of construction systems, measurable performance indicators and thresholds when designing regenerative architecture. In the emerging field of regenerative product design, we have identified a knowledge gap and a need for methodologies to bridge the higher system levels with the product and the material level. The study indicates a need to develop strategies and methods that product designers can implement in future professional practices and design education.