Disassembly Objects: The Importance of Materials in Product Design Education

Higher education, more specifically in the scientific area of product design at the School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, has sought to adopt new methodologies and exercises to balance theory and practice through the articulation of several curricular units. In the scope of the Master in Product Design, the articulation between the units of Sustainability of Products and Services and Product Engineering and Production Systems are positioned as an integral and fundamental part of the project practice. These disciplines integrate the product development exercise through the research and analysis of information associated with the history and life cycle of the object under study, the use of software to obtain technical data, an environmental impact assessment, handling and direct observation to recognise functional modules, components and materials, and the production of diagrams and tables for the identification, description and correlation between the constituent elements of the product-system.The disassembly of existing products on the market in an academic environment combined with the research of the typological evolution of the equipment and the mapping of its life cycle, enables hands-on analysis and exploration of materiality. This approach allows design students to focus on solving real problems and exercise systemic thinking through the reformulation through the possibility of reviewing functional, technical, and ecological priorities of the original product. In this view, this paper results from an analysis to understand the benefits of 'reverse designing' to learning about sustainability strategies and planning of the production system of these products with direct consequences on the results of the projects of the Product and Service Design discipline.