Culture and Contemporaneity
ISSN 2226-0285
Article Volume 27, No. 2, 2025

Form-generating potential of recycled materials in product design

Viktor Shtets, Oksana Melnyk
Received 05.09.2025 Revised 01.12.2025 Accepted 22.12.2025 Published 29.12.2025 Pages 37–47 314 Views

Abstract

The relevance of the study was due to the need to rethink the role of secondary materials in 21st century design in the context of both environmental feasibility and the search for new approaches to form creation that promoted experimentation, individuality, and a departure from mass production standards. The aim of the work was a comprehensive study of the potential of recycled materials as a form-generating factor and identification of the principles that determine the form and image of an object in the practice of object and environmental design. The results of the study showed that recycled materials act as an active form-generating factor and influence the constructive logic, composition and figurative language of products. The work identified three form-generating approaches (material-deterministic, constructive-modular, associative-figurative) the synthesis of which formed a multidimensional functional, visual and semantic structure of a product design, contrasting unification with creative experiment. The involvement of recycled materials in design activities stimulated the rethinking of the material culture of design, forming a more conscious approach to the selection of design materials and the process of their further utilisation. Furniture, lighting and experimental objects by European and Ukrainian designers were studied, as well as student projects that demonstrated different ways of integrating recycled materials into design. Particular attention was paid to the interaction of the physical properties of the material with the form, spatial organisation and imagery of the product. It was analysed how such materials can become a carrier of history, texture and emotional richness of the object. The practical value of the work lies in the possibility of applying the proposed typology and methodology for analysing recycled materials in design, educational and scientific activities for the well-founded formation of concepts and implementation of objects in the field of ecological and object design

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Keywords

shaping; environmentally responsible design; experiment; design meaning; material-driven design

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Shtets, V., & Melnyk, О. (2025). Form-generating potential of recycled materials in product design. Culture and Contemporaneity, 2025(2), 37-47. https://doi.org/10.63009/cac/2.2025.37

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