We’re delighted to be setting a brief for the Product and Furniture Design Collaboration module at UAL Chelsea School of Arts in spring 2026. Thanks to Dr. Michael Kann for inviting us. Keep an eye on their instagram.
The brief reads as follows:
How do we make repair inevitable, maximalised, evidenced, celebrated?
We talk about repair even when we don’t think we do. Synonyms slip in, expanding the meaning to describe our relationship with others as much as the material world.
Repairing a relationship. Mending a sock. Fixing a puncture. Replacing a broken phone screen. Getting the plumber in. Bringing shoes to a cobbler. Getting a skirt adjusted at the dry cleaners. Going in for an operation.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the rich social implications to repair, levels of actual repair are minuscule when compared to the e-waste, textile waste and general household waste we generate nationally (see Waste exhibition catalogue Alex will bring in).
An invisible quality
Products are coy about their relationship to repair. Designed for industrial dis-assembly at best, they are sometimes designed to be repaired by a professional with a certain set of tools (like the iFixit kit). But unless you know anything about screws, you wouldn’t notice nor imagine you could take anything apart. Even the French repairability index is used to inform at the point of purchase (on a website or on the packaging) but it’s the first thing to be thrown away.
· What if products were proud of being repairable?
An invisible skill
Repair is an under-appreciated process as evidenced by the plethora of badly shot Youtube videos and pdfs of user manuals on websites full of advertising pop-ups. But knowing how to repair something is a hard-earned skill. Learning how to repair is learning how to take down carefully without breaking anything more, looking for the problem, investing in the right tools, fixtures and accessories and putting things back together as if nothing had ever happened. But something has happened. With a diminishing number of people investing in developing these skills, repair is at risk of joining the Endangered Craft Register. What does this mean for future repairers? Who will they learn from? And how?
· What if the time spent repairing was cherished?
· What if getting good at repair was like joining a run club?
What happens when it doesn’t happen?
Sometimes, repair doesn’t get a chance at all. A replacement sent to us by the manufacturer, free of charge. That repair is still needed, but we make it someone else’s problem by disposing of it, selling it (damaged) on eBay, Vinted, etc. We pass the buck.
· What if our history of things unrepaired stayed with us? Haunted us?
The works that respond to this brief will be exhibited on May 21st 2026 at Chelsea College of Arts.
The Low Carbon Design Institute 