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“ Repair is a radical act” says Rose Marcario, former CEO of Patagonia. “The simple act of extending the life of our things through proper care and repair reduces the need to buy more over time—thereby avoiding the CO2 emissions, waste output and water usage required to build it.” In this seminar, students will learn methods to repair common household items and how repair and reuse can challenge a culture of consumerism and reduce the environmental impacts of objects created by College of Design disciplines; apparel, products, furniture, buildings, etc.

This course will focus on two main questions.
1. How do we as individuals take responsibility for the care and repair of our things to decrease our individual footprints?
2. How do we, as future design professionals design for use and ownership to decrease consumption on a larger scale?

The class will be a combination of hands-on repair practice, reading & discussion, field trips, and a series of small assignments to learn about repair across scales and disciplines. The class will create a repair focused zine together at the end of the semester and distribute it on campus to share their learning.

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