Design can play a fundamental role in addressing the climate crisis and preserving the planet’s finite resources. Through design, it is possible to reduce the environmental impact of products and services right from concept stage. The elements that concur within a project are diverse and often have an impact on each other. The material is one of them, being able to influence the product, but also the business model, company relations, etc. To help the designer keep all these aspects under control, various methodologies and tools have been developed, among them design strategies and guidelines. To date, several authors have dealt with the topic, offering different perspectives and generating a critical mass of information, which differs in the level of depth and operability of the suggestions, often differing only in terminology rather than content. This inhomogeneity can confuse both professionals and students. This study proposes an ordered taxonomy of the different levels of detail and a unified terminology of the strategies and guidelines in the literature. To test taxonomy and systematisation, this article focuses on guidelines for material choice, resulting in a framework to guide the selection of materials with a view to sustainability.

Textile ecosystems are complex productive realities, in the eye of the cyclone when it comes sustainability-related analysis. Being characterised by very complex value-chains and interconnection of productive actors, textiles production and use represent one of the most crucial challenges for the circular and sustainable transition. Their deployment is esteemed to be in growing for the next years, therefore reflections on how to improve product and materials circularity in this sector is of increasing interest in research and industrial practice. In this contribution, authors will try to map the material properties that can influence textiles application in the fashion sector, focusing on the coupling of material selection activity and application of design strategies to anticipate at best the reflections upon textiles use and recirculation. Results of this activity are then shown and discussed to question the applicability of the reported data into a fashion design activity, to promote awareness and critical reflections upon materials use while designing new fashion goods.

The Textiles and Clothing sector is increasingly focused on transitioning towards circular production, with industrial companies striving to integrate sustainable practices. Achieving this goal can involve the rapid adoption of innovative raw fibers (e.g., biodegradable and biobased materials) and maximizing the use of recycled and recyclable fibers. This implicitly demands acting on the total transparency of information along the complex supply chains in this sector to guarantee the correct adoption of these innovative fibers. It is precisely this complexity that hinders efforts to track and accurately disclose material usage. To address this issue, this paper presents a systematic literature review to explore the main challenges in adopting technologies like digital product passports, which can help track materials information along supply chains to support sustainable transitions. The analyzed articles were selected by excluding student thesis works, non-retrievable articles, papers that had a different focus, and literature published before 2020 or in non-institutional journals. The 53 resulting contributions are analyzed through a thematic analysis and discussed, focusing on identifying key material-related data that should be monitored to ensure responsible material use and strengthen sustainable production practices in the Textiles and Clothing sector, thereby guaranteeing control over material use and preventing premature disposal.

This contribution presents an approach for studying and understanding bacterial cellulose (BC) as a growing material (GM) to be produced, optimized and controlled for potential applications in the design field. The dialogic exchange between the world of design and that of applied sciences led research groups to envision, as a promising environment, the practice of growing materials instead of extracting them. This research has been structured to explore and verify the possibilities offered by design, as an experimental and holistic discipline, in the management of GMs, and specifically of BC. Through a detailed experimental setup and in-depth observation of the materials, a procedure to grow repeatable samples of BC is presented. Several progressive attempts were made and reported to define a precise procedure to grow BC. Potential improvements to the growing techniques and future developments of the work are discussed in the final part of the article, defining possible directions for the research in the design field.

Information about the paper titled "IMPROVING THE MATERIAL SELECTION PROCESS IN PRODUCT DESIGN ACTIVITY: AN OVERVIEW OF MATERIAL REPOSITORIES" at IATED Digital Library

The Textiles and Clothing sector is increasingly focused on transitioning towards circular production, with industrial companies striving to integrate sustainable practices. Achieving this goal can involve rapidly adopting innovative materials, meaning using innovative raw ones and maximising the use of recycled and recyclable fibres. This implicitly means acting on the total transparency of information along the entangled supply chains in this sector. It is precisely this complexity that hampers efforts to track and disclose material usage accurately. To address this issue, this paper presents a systematic literature review to explore the main challenges in adopting technologies like digital product passports, which can help track materials information along supply chains to support sustainable transitions. The review's findings are discussed, focusing on identifying key material-related data that should be monitored to ensure responsible material use and strengthen sustainable production practices in the textiles and clothing sector to guarantee control over the use of materials and prevent their early dismissal.