Description

‘SHARDS’ examines the design potential of glass waste from the artisanal glass studio. While industrial glass recycling is established, studio glass residues mostly remain unused due to small quantities, inhomogeneous composition, and potential impurities. The project does not view these shards as waste, but as a valuable resource and explores new ways of reusing them.

Through research, field trips, and discussions with glassworks, recycling companies, and glass studios, material flows were identified that have so far fallen out of existing cycles. Based on this, experimental material studies were created using recycling and studio glass. By means of glass casting, it was investigated how shard size, color, and composition influence melting behavior and aesthetics. The results are concepts for a circular color-tapping system as well as a resource-saving studio that transforms glass waste into individual objects.