Modular Design
Modular design builds products for easy repair, upgrading and maintenance, extending their working life and reducing waste. The Fairphone is given as an example, since its modular components can be individually replaced by users.
Named as a sustainability practice, "designing explicitly for repairability, adaptability, modularity, and ease of maintenance, empowering users and extending product lifespans", and illustrated through the Fairphone: "a modular smartphone designed for easy repair and component upgrades, is a powerful example of an outcome whose material and technological choices are explicitly oriented toward extending product life and reducing electronic waste." At the Outcome level: "This modular design allows users to replace individual components, extending the product's lifespan and reducing electronic Waste."
Related in Community
Entries this one is tied to through the book.
Examples
- The Tool Library, Columbus, Ohio · both placed under Waste (technological)
- Al Gramo · discussed together in section 160
- An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore) · discussed together in section 160
- Brundtland Report ("Our Common Future") · discussed together in section 096
- Fairphone · discussed together in section 160
- Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) "Seventh Generation" Principle · discussed together in section 096
- LifeStraw · discussed together in section 160
- MOTH (More-Than-Human Rights) Program (NYU) · discussed together in section 096
- Silent Spring (Rachel Carson) · discussed together in section 160
- Solar Sister · discussed together in section 160
Methods
- Agile · both placed under Entropic (Erratic) Events
- Cradle to Cradle (book by William McDonough and Michael Braungart) · both placed under Waste (technological)
- Design for Disassembly · both placed under Waste (technological)
- Industrial Symbiosis · both placed under Waste (technological)
Books and references
- The Story of Stuff · discussed together in section 160
In the Framework
- Sustainability
- Technological Component
- Outcomes Component
- Environment (Ecological Niche)
- Products · element
In the book
- Chapter 9, section 096 · Sustainability - An Ethical Obligation Across Time, Species, and Justice
- Chapter 15, section 146 · Alignment with the Four Mottos
- Chapter 16, section 160 · Environment Dimension
Mentioned in
Methods