page_title: Design with memory
section_title: Application
hierarchical_section_title: Design with memory / Application
caption_attribution_description: English: COMPOSTABLE KEYBOARD designed by Jason Iverson, Shayan Rafie. The photo is an award winning example of "Design with Memory of the nature" strategy. The goal with this strategy is to make the product self-evidently integrating with natural cycles. The keyboard keys and body are instead made from carrot and celery fibers bound with a starch based binder – 100% compostable after the electronic sheet and chord are removed.
context_page_description: Design with Memory is a value adding approach to Sustainable Product Design and Architecture that was developed by Japanese industrial design professional Fumikazu Masuda, professor at Tokyo Zokei University, and American architect Tom Johnson as a design criteria for use in the 5th and 6th rounds of the International Design Resource Awards Competition between 1999-2003. Introduced at the time of rising global sustainability movement in the 90s, the term proposes a new way of looking at design with recycled, re-used and sustainable materials and identifies 4 pathways to approach design to achieve this result of added value.
  The first mention of the term "Design with Memory" in the U.S. was in the ARCADE magazine. In an article discussing winning entries to the first 3 rounds of the Competition Architect Johnson said, “We have come to call it 'Designing with Memory' because sustainable design is based on the recognition of our interdependent relationship with the natural world around us – something we forgot when we had designed products and architecture with the idea that their materials could be wasted and landfilled.
context_section_description: The Japanese industrial design professor and American architect duo identified 4 pathways to accomplish Designing with Memory and introduced them as focus categories in the 5th and 6th rounds of IDRA Competition. Each pathway was illustrated through examples of award winning entries from the Competition:
  Design with Memory of the User - The goal is to reduce the amount of consumption by making products useful and desirable for a longer period of time. The method employed is to develop a strong relationship between the user and the product. A winning entry example of this strategy was the GreenPeace Activist Bag.  It used a smoked natural rubber material coated on used sugar sacks made by members of an indigenous community in the Amazon delta as part of a carrier bag.  Users knew every day that this product was made to make the native rubber trees more valuable standing than cut down for grazing and thus helping support their local community.  All parts of the bag were compostable, so when it did wear out, it could go back into the earth.
  Design with Memory of the Material –This strategy is for finding successful paths to re-use materials. Materials that are discarded can be a rich resource for new product development. Adding value to the material through artistic design is the key to using them successfully.  A winning entry example of this strategy is the elegant baskets woven from discarded industrial metal strapping.
  Design with Memory of the Product –The goal is to create a cycle of product, and product re-use, into the future.  A winning example of this approach is by a porcelain product company that developed a way to regrind discarded and their broken porcelain products and form it into a new product. To illustrate to the purchaser the nature of the product they incorporated their traditional design motifs blended into the new forms.
  Design with Memory of Nature - The goal with this strategy is to make the product self-evidently integrating with natural cycles. A winning entry example of this strategy is the compostable computer keyboard.  Technological advances are rapid and cause plastic products to be “out of date” quickly - leading to increased pressure on recycling programs and landfills. To address this problem, the keyboard keys and body are instead made from carrot and celery fibers bound with a starch based binder – 100% compostable after the electronic sheet and chord are removed.
caption: Compostable keyboard "Design with Memory of Nature" category award winning example
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