Transformative Repair reframes the broken object not as waste but as creative material, arguing that designers and craftspeople are the most capable respondents to a global waste crisis demanding more than mere restoration.
About This Book
Australia generates 75 million tonnes of waste annually, much of it discarded goods that could be repaired. Guy Keulemans takes this figure not as a statistic to lament but as a design brief to answer. Drawing on a decade of participatory design research conducted across institutions including the Australian Design Centre, JamFactory, and Design Tasmania, Transformative Repair documents ambitious collaborative projects that stretch the meaning of repair far beyond its conventional limits. Japanese lacquerware masters mend Western ceramics; contemporary jewellers encase cake mixers in concrete; kintsugi sits alongside digital and virtual repair methodologies. The result is both a scholarly argument and a practical guide — a case for redirecting the skills of trained makers toward damaged and obsolete objects, and in doing so, challenging the logic of linear economies built on planned obsolescence. Essential reading for designers, craftspeople, and anyone invested in sustainable design practice.
Key Features
- 191 pages of participatory design research documentation, project photography, and critical argument
- Featured artists and designers include Jane Bowden, David Caon, Andrew Carvolth, Adam Goodrum, Benja Harney, Kyoko Hashimoto, Trent Jansen, Peta Kruger, Kay Lawrence, Lucy McRae, Tom Moore, Johnny Nargoodah, Blanche Tilden, and the Campana Brothers
- Projects conducted across the Australian Design Centre, JamFactory, and Design Tasmania
- Published by Uro Publications, 2026
What You'll Discover
- How repair can be a transformative creative act rather than a process of returning objects to their original condition
- The intersection of traditional craft practices — including Japanese kintsugi and lacquerware — with contemporary and digital repair methodologies
- How furniture, homewares, textiles, and electronics can be revived through the redirected expertise of skilled studio practitioners
- The ethical and economic argument for a culture of conservation and creative transformation as an alternative to linear production and disposal cycles
About the Author
Dr Guy Keulemans is a designer and researcher at Adelaide University, holding a Masters in Humanitarian Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven and a PhD from UNSW Sydney. For over ten years he has conducted participatory design research across Australia into creative forms of repair and reuse, building on 25 years of studio practice experience.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback with clear dust jacket
- Pages: 191
- Dimensions: 175 x 250mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780646896564
- Publisher: Uro Publications
- Publication Date: 2026
Perfect For: Designers, craftspeople, and makers engaged with sustainable practice; academics and students researching circular economy and material culture; curators and institutions working at the intersection of craft and environmental responsibility.