URBAN MINING – URBAN TOOLING

Many raw materials as well as metal ores from geological deposits are increasingly expensive and riskier to mine. At the same time, anthropogenic deposits are growing locally – in the form of landfills or even long-lived goods that are already unused or will become unusable in the near future. We use these valuable materials through ‘urban mining’ to design and shape tools for tomorrow.

We dedicated ourselves to the archaic material metal and its equally original use for manual tools, because hardly any other material is more self-evident in this context. We examined current metal hand tools in terms of their shape, ergonomics, function, also cultural function, their users, production and materiality and last but not least their necessity. We then developed a next generation of tools made of metals that are already in use and will be our raw material tomorrow. A key aspect for the design of a tool for the future was to assess this future holistically and above all to design it – another aspect was the recyclability and use of material cycles.