In Re-Source DAE/Readership Places and Traces (dr. David Hamers) collaborates with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (prof. dr. Ginette Verstraete and Joost Adriaanse), Studio Ester van de Wiel, and the municipality of Rotterdam in a research addressing the transition towards a circular economy and the ways in which a variety of professionals participate in this process.

The research focusses on how the experimental and innovative capacities of the design practice can help re-frame (re-think and re-make) flows of residual material into resources, what roles the various participants can take in this process, and how their participation can inform the design practice, education, and research. To achieve this, research methods from the humanities and design research (by both design professionals and students) are joined.

At Design Academy Eindhoven, design researcher Ester van de Wiel supervises five research associates: Jos Klarenbeek, Thom Bindels, Simone Post, Paul Slot, and Manon van Hoeckel. Each of them works with a particular material flow, in situ, in the city of Rotterdam, and chooses his/her own approach. Ester van de Wiel reflects on how these hands-on ways of working develop, and which opportunities they offer for both the city of Rotterdam and the design (research) practice.

For more information, see the project’s website 
This research project receives funding from NWO/SIA.
The project runs from 1 November 2017 to 1 November 2019.