T.R.I.A.L.

Collection: The design of T.R.I.A.L. began with a real-world material inquiry: collecting discarded or damaged furniture from the streets and hard rubbish zones of inner-city Melbourne. These items—often left behind at end of tenancy—ranged from broken to fully functional.

Digital Scanning / Component Library: Rather than starting with a predefined form, the design process responded directly to what was found. Each object was dismantled into its components—legs, backrests, panels, and shelves—and carefully documented. Selected parts were 3D scanned and digitally archived, forming a flexible library of irregular forms.

Digital Modelling + Component Recombination: This archive, managed within Rhino’s modelling environment, served as a resource hub for rapid ideation, enabling component recombination based on availability rather than ideality.

Connector Design and Fabrication: From the digital library, combinations were explored, and connectors were designed using Rhino and Grasshopper. These were tailored to the geometries of salvaged parts and fabricated with 3D-printed Polylactic Acid (PLA), a recyclable, biodegradable material made from plant enzymes. The connectors were intentionally left visible, serving as both structural solutions and expressive markers of transformation and repair.

Assembly Process: Guided by the material conditions and user needs, a series of experimental furniture pieces were developed—including a chair, side table, floor lamp, clothes rack, and spatial divider. Each piece emerged through hands-on iteration rather than standardisation, reflecting a design approach rooted in testing, discovery, and respectful reuse.

This six-stage workflow—collection, scanning, modelling, recombination, connector fabrication, and assembly—forms a responsive, low-waste design method. It offers a scalable model for localised reuse initiatives, not only producing furniture but rethinking the ethics and poetics of making. Through this process, T.R.I.A.L. reframes furniture not as a static product, but as a dynamic medium for exploring material value, repair, and everyday living.

T.R.I.A.L. exemplifies design excellence by integrating ecological thinking, technical craft, and emotional resonance. It addresses the global issue of furniture waste through a localised, design-led process that not only generates functional objects but also encourages a more conscious and resourceful approach to working with materials in design.

Functionally, each piece responds to the spatial and practical needs of transient student lifestyles—compact, portable, and responsive to existing materials. Structural integrity is achieved through custom 3D-printed connectors, precisely tailored to irregular salvaged parts. These connections avoid the use of industrial fasteners or adhesives, reducing environmental toxicity while enabling future repair and disassembly.

Aesthetically, T.R.I.A.L. departs from the norms of minimalism and polish. It embraces the expressive potential of imperfection and visible repair. Damaged timber, worn surfaces, and asymmetry are not hidden but highlighted. Printed joints—often bold in color—create contrast, narrating the object’s transformation and celebrating acts of repair.

The user experience centres on emotional engagement. Each object is a unique assemblage shaped by context and experimentation, encouraging users to view their surroundings as flexible, repairable, and personally meaningful rather than disposable.

Beyond the individual pieces, T.R.I.A.L. presents a practical and adaptable design mindset. It demonstrates that working with reclaimed materials can inspire innovation rather than limit it, and that sustainability can enhance both visual and functional outcomes.

By focusing on reuse, creative repair, and material sensitivity, T.R.I.A.L. offers a design approach that could be applied more widely, within Victoria and beyond. It encourages the design community to rethink waste as a design driver and shows how sustainable thinking can lead not to compromise, but to better, more meaningful results.

T.R.I.A.L. introduces a design process that is both materially grounded and technologically inventive. Its innovation lies not in a single breakthrough, but in how it brings together digital tools, discarded materials, and creative repair thinking into a cohesive method that is flexible, responsive, and replicable. Rather than generating new forms from virgin materials, the project begins with existing conditions—broken, unwanted, or irregular furniture components. Each item is scanned and digitally archived, enabling a workflow where the design adapts to the geometry, flaws, and character of what is available. This reverses the usual design-to-manufacture sequence and reframes waste as a starting point, not an afterthought. Custom 3D-printed connectors are designed to fit salvaged parts with precision. These are not generic—they are developed case by case, tailored to real-world geometries and structural needs. Their function is both practical and expressive, often turning breakage points into focal moments of reinvention.

By making repair visible, the project repositions failure as a creative opportunity. In contrast to modular or standardised reuse systems, T.R.I.A.L. values uniqueness and assemblage. Each outcome is distinct, shaped by trial and error, material constraint, and user context. The design is not optimised for efficiency or repetition, but for adaptability, narrative, and thoughtful use of available resources. This innovation is also conceptual. T.R.I.A.L. challenges conventional design priorities—such as visual uniformity, material control, or mass scalability—and embraces an open, improvisational, repair-driven approach. It proposes that digital fabrication can support more sustainable, human-centred design when used not for automation, but for customisation and care. By combining low-tech salvage with high-tech adaptation, T.R.I.A.L. offers a model for how designers can respond creatively to waste, turning overlooked materials into objects of renewed function, character, and value.

T.R.I.A.L. aims to create a lasting impact across environmental, social, and educational dimensions. At its core, the project reimagines discarded furniture not as waste, but as a valuable design resource, reducing landfill and lowering the demand for new materials. By working almost entirely with reclaimed components and biodegradable 3D-printed parts, it offers a low-carbon, low-waste alternative to fast furniture culture.

Socially, the project responds to the realities of students, renters, and other mobile populations who often face barriers to sustainable choices due to cost, convenience, or limited access to repair tools and knowledge. By proposing a creative and flexible approach to reuse, T.R.I.A.L. provides a framework that is both accessible and empowering. It encourages people to view repair and reuse not as a compromise, but as acts of authorship—positioning sustainability as personal, expressive, and achievable at a local scale.

Educationally, the project models a shift in design thinking. It challenges the assumption that design is solely about producing new objects and instead advocates for the transformation of what already exists. Through its methods, T.R.I.A.L. promotes a mindset of continuity over disposability and stewardship over ownership.

Economically, the model holds potential for community-scale circular systems. Its process—collection, scanning, connector design, and reassembly—could be adopted by councils, universities, or social enterprises as a practical strategy to extend the lifecycle of furniture and reduce waste management costs.

Ultimately, T.R.I.A.L.s impact lies not only in the furniture it produces but in how it redefines value, offering an alternative design narrative based on care, creativity, and long-term responsibility.

Circular thinking is embedded in every stage of the T.R.I.A.L. design process. From the outset, the project rejects the use of virgin materials, focusing instead on the recovery and transformation of discarded furniture components. Each recovered item is carefully disassembled into reusable parts, which are then scanned, documented, and repurposed—extending their material life and preventing premature disposal.

The project avoids standardised or modular outcomes in favour of adaptable, context-specific assemblages that respond directly to the available material. This ensures that no two pieces are alike, and that design decisions are guided by reuse opportunities rather than production convenience. Repair becomes a creative act, and irregularities are not concealed but celebrated. To support this process, T.R.I.A.L. uses 3D-printed Polylactic Acid (PLA)—a recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable material derived from plant enzymes—as the primary material for new connector components. These connectors are mechanically fastened: no glue, nails, or irreversible joins are used, allowing for future disassembly, modification, or replacement.

A digital archive of scanned parts provides a system for long-term tracking, remixing, and redesign. It also supports potential applications such as repair services, local reuse initiatives, or community-based exchange networks. By minimising new material use, enabling disassembly, and working exclusively with reclaimed components, T.R.I.A.L. presents a practical and scalable model of circular design at the product level.