The 30-minute Repair Society

What would it take to make the act of repairing a broken lamp or coffee machine the standard, once again? At In4Art, this question led us down a fascinating research path that culminated in our latest publication: The 30-minute Repair Society—a comprehensive urban strategy on how cities can enhance their circular ambitions and make repair accessible, affordable, and integrated into our communities.

This vision emerged from our collaboration with Erasmus University and TUDelft through the “Valuing repair in just labour transitions in the Rijnmond region” project, supported by the Resilient Delta Kick-Starter grant programme. What started as an imaginary inquiry into fair labour repair transitions became an exploration of our relationship with the material world around us.

It springs from a recognition that repair represents the most logical first step in developing consciousness about the true value of our possessions. When we understand what goes into fixing something—the skill, the time, the material, the care—we begin to appreciate what went into making it in the first place.

Our society shifted from a repair-and-recycle society to a waste-and-replace culture. Induced by mass consumption, economies-of-scale and cultural choices that prioritised convenience over sustainability, newness over stewardship.

Drawing inspiration from France's Spareka model, which successfully enables two-thirds of electronics repairs through video support, proving that most "broken" items simply need expert guidance rather than expert hands. 

Addressing the primary barrier to successful repair by ensuring parts are available when and where they’re needed, functioning like a logistics network.

These neighbourhood stations, of which many already exist in the form of repair shops, repair cafes, makerplaces, ensure that when repair labour is needed, it’s never more than a short walk away.

For the 15% of repairs requiring advanced expertise, these centres function as contemporary guilds, preserving specialist knowledge whilst fostering education and innovation.

It’s about repositioning repair within our urban infrastructure as an integral part of the circular economy. It is about appreciation and recognition for the ‘coolness’ of repair. Just as we expect healthcare to be accessible when we’re unwell, or education to be available for our children, repair services should be woven into the fabric of our neighbourhoods—visible, reliable, and celebrated.

Using Rotterdam as our case study, we propose how 85 neighbourhood repair stations and 4 district specialty centres could serve the entire urban population, creating what we call a RAK (Repair Access per Kilometre) Index of 1—meaning every square kilometre has access to comprehensive repair services.

To prosper, we should again normalise repair as a civic virtue. This cultural shift requires seeing repair not as individual problem-solving but as collective capability-building. When repair becomes visible within our communities and we can see the skilled hands that diagnose, restore, and renew our possessions, we begin to understand the true value embedded in our material world. The 30-minute Repair Society envisions our repair stations and specialty centres as repositories of this material culture—places where diagnosis becomes an art, restoration a technique, and patience a celebrated virtue.

If we cannot win the battle of “Proudly Made in Rotterdam,” let us at least forge a future where we can proclaim “Proudly Repaired in Rotterdam.”