Positive Impact: The new aesthetics of circularity

This article first appeared in Mix Interiors #231

Words: Rima Sabina Aouf

In her 1999 book Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash, Susan Strasser coined the term ‘the veneration of newness’. She was exploring how the USA changed from a culture of reuse to one of disposability in the 20th century, and these four words captured how tastes shifted in tandem with changes in wealth, technology and advertising. Relatively quickly, we came to look at old things as dirty and new things as beautiful.

Now, potentially, we are on the precipice of another shift. Design features that may have last decade signified cheapness, coldness or even uncleanliness are being read differently due to their connection with sustainability and especially circular design – a more quantifiable way of thinking of sustainability that prioritises keeping materials in a closed loop of repair, reuse, recycling and regeneration. Along with a recovered appreciation for the charm of older objects, we are looking with fresh eyes at unfinished and monomaterials that can be easily recycled, exposed connectors that signify a construction can be taken apart for reuse, and the earthy look of biomaterials that can be returned to the ground – or the uneven colour of recycled plastic.