REDESIGN: DESIGN FOR REASSEMBLY Mark Richardson Monash University, Department of Design, Industrial Design, Faculty of Art and Design, Caulfield East, Victoria, 3145, Australia, www.monash.edu.au ABSTRACT: In a probable future of legislated Extended Product Responsibility (EPR), Carbon offsetting, and growing concern for increasing landfill levels, the necessity for a shift in design systems is becoming increasingly apparent. Manufacturers are likely to be looking for avenues to reduce carbon footprints and emissions, both in terms of manufacturing practice and embodied energy within products. Designing to minimise waste and increase product longevity will be necessary strategies to ensure successful reductions in carbon emissions. The notion of designing for the innovative reuse of existing components within highly agile manufacturing systems, or what has been called ‘redesign’, 1 provides the basis of a sustainable design methodology which utilises devices such as information and communication technology (ICT), rapid manufacturing and component reuse to encourage ‘dematerialisation’, or a net reduction in material consumption, in society. It alters the way 1 This is a phrase coined by the Victorian Eco-innovation Lab in an initial workshop for sustainable design solutions in 2007. 1