CURE, Centres for Urban Remanufacture, is an international research project aimed to promote material recovery through re-manufacture in different cities. The CURE Pathfinder project explored the possibility of establishing Centres for Urban Re-manufacture (CUREs) in different cities, estimated the potential benefit these centres may generate in Berlin and Gothenburg and tried to engage a consortium to implement the centres.
FUNDER
EIT Climate-KIC
PARTNERS
TU Berlin – Chair for Circular Economy and Recycling Technologies, Material Mafia and OMA e.V.
DATE
August – December 2018
The challenge
Large amounts of secondary material are discarded in cities, much of which could be used by local creatives and producers. The amounts currently recovered through creative reuse and remanufacturing are only a small fraction of the useful materials discarded.
Our approach
Explore the possibility of establishing a hub for secondary material in urban areas, where local producers could collect secondary material and also access workshop spaces to experiment with the material available. This idea was first explored through a literature review of similar initiatives that could help inform how such a centre could operate, and later it was suggested to local reuse and remanufacture actors in Berlin and Gothenburg.
The outcomes
The project succeeded in exploring the potential and promoting the idea of CUREs in the cities of Berlin and Gothenburg. Networking events done in both cities brought local reuse actors together to talk about possible collaborations and the possibility of setting up such centres. Additionally the work resulted in project reports and an open source article that describes initiatives that currently use or redistribute secondary materials and/or share tools and workshop spaces. These reports help inform the state of the art in material reuse in Gothenburg and Berlin, and describes possible ways in which a mediating centre could operate.
Further steps
In Berlin, this led some actors to look for further funding to implement such a centre, resulting in a DBU grant awarded to support the Haus der Materialisierung project in the city centre.
