Circular Design Praxis is a coalition of academic institutions, businesses, and communities for fostering and implementing a place-based approach to circular design predicated on systemic change. We value the circular designs that arise from the wealth of local culture and vernacular practices. By interweaving this creative and embodied knowledge, we aim to bring forth pluriversal and sustainable actualities. The project aims to establish a bottom-up, place-based, and pluralistic approach to circular design based on inspiration from the lands, customs, culture, and traditions of the Asia-Pacific region, where production/manufacturing is relatively closely connected to daily life.

In 2022, we held a pre-conference as a space for experts from diverse backgrounds to meet and discuss the starting-up process publicly. In Summer 2023, as part of the 10th anniversary event of KYOTO Design Lab, Kyoto Institute of Technology, we held a two-day symposium ‘Circular Design Praxis Symposium 2023 – A symposium on circular design predicated on systemic transition’. A total of 135 people attended the event on-site at the KYOTO Design Lab and 123 people participated online.

Together with experts and practitioners with diverse perspectives, we deepened our perspectives on: how the “Transition to a Circular Economy” should be designed; how the industrial ecosystem, institutional structures and human resource cultivation that accompany it would look like; and how new values and worldviews that support this design process could be acquired.

In Winter 2023, we held ‘Circular Design Week 2023 in Kagoshima’ to elevate our understanding of place-based approaches through practices rooted in Kagoshima Prefecture. Over 80 participants from more than 11 countries, including Australia, Thailand and Taiwan, gathered for seven days to learn from the rich practices rooted in the various lands of Kagoshima and to explore the transition to a more pluriversal and sustainable world.

Furthermore, in 2023, a Working Group led by our corporate partners was set up to explore themes and issues related to circular design. As part of this project, we studied a variety of initiatives related to circular economy practised in Zama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The findings of the research have been published as an interim report which is available through the related links section further down the page (in Japanese language only). The research revealed emergent bottom-up and autonomous circular design that goes beyond improving the efficiency of resource circulation.

In 2024, Circular Design Week will be held in Taiwan! Please stay tuned for more activities and events of CDP!