Changing consumer behaviour can reduce environmental impacts. Upcycling is one of the understudied yet promising, environmentally sustainable behaviours that has the potential to contribute to the reduction of waste and greenhouse gas emissions. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by exploring factors influencing upcycling for UK makers. The study employed a survey based on Triandis’s theory of interpersonal behaviour and Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour. The survey results revealed key determinants of upcycling as attitude, intention, and subjective norm, and demographic characteristics of people who are more likely to upcycle frequently as females aged 30+ working in art and design. The paper further discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the study.

Upcycling presents one of many opportunities for reducing consumption of materials and energy. Despite recent growth evidenced by increasing numbers of practitioners and businesses based on upcycling, it remains a niche activity and requires scaling up to realise its potential benefits. This paper investigates UK household upcycling in order to develop interventions for scaling up upcycling in the UK. Mixed methods were used in four stages: (a) Interviews to gain insights into UK upcycling; (b) a survey to discover key factors influencing UK upcycling; (c) intervention development based on the synthesis of interviews and survey; and (d) use of a semi-Delphi technique to evaluate and develop initial interventions. The results showed approaches to upcycling (e.g., wood, metal and fabric as frequently used materials, online platforms as frequently used source of materials), context for upcycling (e.g., predominant use of home for upcycling), factors influencing UK upcycling with key determinants (i.e., intention, attitude and subjective norm), important demographic characteristics considering a target audience for interventions (i.e., 30+ females) and prioritised interventions for scaling up (e.g., TV and inspirational media and community workshops as short-term high priority interventions). The paper further discusses implications of the study in terms of development of theory and practice of upcycling.

If you want to understand, and be a part of, the creative revolution in materials design, then Designing with Smart Textiles is the complete toolkit you need to get started. Beginning by introducing the terminology and key applications, the book goes on to examine the key design processes needed to develop interactive textile design concepts, with detailed projects and examples to help you apply these approaches in your own practice. Case studies and interviews with innovative designers introduce you to different artistic and technological practices, and demonstrate how world-leading researchers are creating new technologies, yarns, fabrics, and applications. Practitioners share unique insights into their processes, and "Tech Tips" so you can build on their research in your own work.

To promote a resilient user-product relationship for sustainable fashion, design methods for emotional durability are required. Digitally transformable fashion design can be seen as a practical approach that enables dynamic, sensory, experiential, and emotional interaction. Literature shows that features of transformable fashion and textiles, such as versatility, perceived quality, biomorphic forms, and aesthetics, can induce emotional durability in users. However, mainstream works are conducted from function-oriented and technology-led perspectives, neglecting the significance of fashion design as a creative and affective role. To fill the gap, we present exhaustive accounts of two autobiographical design projects as case studies: Pneum-Muscle, a body-worn pneumatic wearable, and E-coral, an artistic interactive textile installation. We utilised the first-person soma design method to facilitate the iterative design and unfold the emotional connection between the user and the materials. We contribute technology-embedded fashion design strategies to inspire novice fashion designers, which involve dynamic draping, ambiguous cutting, and sewing technique-based pneumatic systems. Design guidelines generated can shed new light on the artistic use of technologies, somatic design, and the emotionally durable design approach.

This paper reports on an inter-disciplinary, EPSRC funded research project, “An Internet of Soft Things” (IoSofT) which seeks to bring soft surfaces, smart textiles and wearable technologies to join the Internet of Things debate. The project involves researchers from academic disciplines: design, computing and mental health in collaboration with a project partner, the Nottinghamshire network of the mental health charity, Mind. This paper will reflect upon the research project and specifically the approach the authors have taken to collaborative textile practice and how this has impacted upon the design process. This project was conducted through a number of practical workshop activities with Mind service user groups. The workshops focused upon the crafting of personalized textile objects with soft switches and various output and also recorded the clients’ descriptions of their sense of ownership, awareness of their own and others’ emotions and behaviours. The workshops included the researchers’ reflections and observations to enable further understanding of how this community invests meaning in material things and modes of expressive output. The aim of the research project is to use textile craft practice and smart materials alongside therapeutic approaches to contribute to the development of a wellbeing and mental health toolkit to support future client work for Mind.