OurkilO

OurkilO became a project investigating the role of plastic (PET & PLA) in the economy of today and tomorrow, the case for local production chains, and the potential of digital manufacturing.

Domain

Manufacturing

Theme

High value mechanical plastic recycling

Point of Entry :

Artist/s
Ourkilo - Pesetabs

Po Documentary

Ec RPLA and RPET post-consumer use

So Awareness workshop

Ec Micro, local factory system

Te 5 Recycling recipes & Prototypes

Ar OurkilO installation

Details

About

Knowing that our resources and assets are limited, why aren’t we more willing to upcycle and extend the life span of materials? Seeing that digital and physical are morphing, what impact does that have on our notion and relation with materiality? These questions resulted in the start of the Reboot & Reuse project, an art-driven experiment by Bastiaan de Nennie and In4Art on rebooting function and form, while reusing the material in a closed loop.

In 2021, the project evolved into OurkilO and resulted in a micro-factory in Rotterdam, that investigated a complete solution to replace mass production manufacturing with a customizable, modular and circular system enabled by a digital platform to keep track of the material and CO2 footprint. What if we could reach a 90%+ reduction of CO2 emissions in cities and 100% plastic waste elimination compared to current alternatives?

Within OurkilO a local micro-factory concept was prototyped in Rotterdam and experiments were conducted on creating a circular model for PET and PLA plastic. It focussed on mechanical recycling and experimented with various processing- and production techniques, mainly 3D printing. The goal was to overcome the plastic waste through creating a loop, while being able to use it as a high-quality materials for as long as possible.

Results

All the results, learnings and lessons from this project have been documented and shared in the following way:

Documentary

Catalogue

Printable files

Cards game

Recipe booklets:

1. PLA
2. Industrial PET Waste
3. Blow molded PET – Household waste
4. Vacuum formed PET – Household waste
5. PET360 – Festival waste

Knowing that our resources and assets are limited, why aren’t we more willing to upcycle and extend the life span of objects?

The Art-Driven Innovation project started as an artistic exploration; the Reboot & Reuse concept and was presented at ‘The evening of Im-Materials‘.

Reboot & Reuse is a thinking-by-making investigation where fabrication engines on a neighbourhood scale serve as shared workshops. In this concept, digital fabrication is used to divide existing products into their component parts, allowing to see something that was an integrated whole in an entirely different light. By taking the material into the digital realm, it becomes possible to transform the (im)material constraints; opening up the possibility to choose what to drop or add. With this investigation distributive- and regenerative by design principles are analysed to picture a new political economy of matter. Rebooting function and reusing form to materialise a new thing of value. A kilo material is all it takes.

It continues as an investigation into a business model innovation. We work on local ‘material as a service’ and the realization of a small factory, where customers buy a certain weight in kilo, which can be transformed in shape over time: rebooting the function and reusing the same material in a closed loop. This results in a sustainable use of pure plastic by enhancing it’s aesthetic value over time and gives proof to a circular model.

We transfer value from the object to the materiality; meaning that instead of how the object is used, the material is the key driver. The value becomes the resource: the kilos of material. This asks for a model where people own material with multiple life cycles of a specific form or function, enabling a circular model for furniture ownership: the form and function of materiality can be endlessly adjusted through digital fabrication. Hence, it contributes to an access-based economy and is regenerative by design; enabling efficient, responsible and sustainable production and consumption.

Reboot & Reuse is jointly being developed by Phygital Studio and In4Art. Together we embark on journey towards this untapped potential of everyday items. By embracing temporality by design, we want to introduce idea-generation for the digital age, and propose a new model of ownership – rejuvenating products and materials in the process. We have conducted various small-scale prototypes and are currently developing use cases. With Reboot & Reuse we want to realize Europe’s first ‘plastic as a service’ factory in Rotterdam. Our ambition is to create a closed material flow using bio plastic to print everyday tools and parts that can be reused (Reuse) or redesigned (Reboot) over time.

OurkilO Circular products
> Close material loops for (plant-based) plastics, upcycling industrial and consumer waste streams, making brand new items out of them, again and again.

> Bring the average CO2 footprint for each kilo of furniture down from 635 kg to 1 kg! Most CO2 is emitted in production and transport. This is why we produce locally in our modular micro-factories.

> Set up local circular communities where companies become up-cyclers, suppliers and consumers, local shops and restaurants become collection points. All around the OurkilO micro-factory in the city.

OurkilO micro-factories are small scale, highly automated, digital additive manufacturing setups developed to be placed in cities, offering customizable plant-based plastic furniture components designed for circularity.

The micro-factories offer a complete software-hardware solution to replace mass production furniture manufacturing and stimulate circular innovation. We create our products from waste streams at our client.

After selecting the desired components, the micro-factory automatically additively manufactures the components ready for assembly, use and recycling. This is supported by a dashboard and community platform to give insight in the kilo’s of material and CO2 emissions.

Artist/s

In the Phygital Studio – physical and digital collide. Beginning with anything from a tea pot to a steering wheel or a meat grinder, Bastiaan de Nennie seamlessly merges virtual and physical objects using digital and printing technologies that allow for reverse-engineered shapes, forms, and functions.

Partners

Koppert Cress / NOBS /  Joshua Holetz / Gerben van Osselaer /  Léon Spek / Niels Heymans / Maarten Scherpenisse / Peter-Bas Schelling / Bluegrass festival /  BioFutura / Bergweg Werkt! / Blijberg / Imelda school / Hildegardis / Byewaste / Impackt!

Duration

2019 – 2023

Investment

€350.000

Credits

OurkilO has won several awards and grants that supported our experiments and learnings: DigiCirc, CityLab010, P>ACT Challenge Provincie Zuid Holland and Di-Plast.

This Project has indirectly received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation action programme, via an Open Call for Circular Cities issued and executed under the project DigiCirc (grant agreement No 873468)