circularity:
materials + form
Held from 27–29 June 2024 at 181 Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, Circularity: Materials + Form was a brief but focused exhibition in which RMIT University, Polestar and Green Magazine brought circular design futures into the public realm.
Over three days, the pop-up space gathered videos, simulations, material experiments and speculative artefacts from RMIT’s Master of Architecture Design Studio and Research Elective.
Together, the works offered a sharp provocation:
If materials evolve across lifetimes, why do our buildings insist on permanence?
The project’s central aim was to investigate how waste—industrial by-products, biological remnants, overlooked fibres—could be reclaimed and redeployed as architectural resources for a post-carbon future.
The student projects ranged from bone-based structural propositions to mycelium–eelgrass insulation composites, alongside animated explorations of energy cycles that question architecture’s relationship to extraction and duration. Each project suggested a shift: from consuming materials to stewarding them.
Polestar contributed an industry lens informed by its Polestar 0 ambition, grounding the experimentation in real-world pathways toward climate-neutral production.
Green Magazine positioned the work within a broader cultural and environmental discourse, drawing from its longstanding engagement with sustainable design.
Building on typography already in use within Ian Nazareth’s design studio, DM Sans and DM Mono were paired with understated editorial-style layouts. Printed on 100% uncoated recycled paper and featuring a simple wire binding, reflected the exhibition’s investigative, material-focused ethos.
The work distilled complex research into clear visual communication, allowing visitors to navigate the ideas while appreciating their depth and ambition.
Design decisions, from typeface and paper selection to binding, reinforced the exhibition’s exploration of material cycles and architectural possibilities, ensuring the ideas retained their integrity while remaining accessible to a public audience.
Circularity: Materials + Form
Year completed: 2024Services: Selected Printed matter, Editorial & Exhibition Layout
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