Smart small-scale piped water supply

The democratization of personal fabrication technologies in parallel to the rising desire of individuals for personalizing their products offers great opportunities to experiment distributed and shared production processes and valorise locally produced (recycle) materials.

This new approach grounds on making, crafting and personal fabrication (Gershenfeld, 2005; Kuznetsov, Paulos, 2010; Tanenbaum et al. 2013) and highlights the renaissance of craftsmanship (Sennett, 2008; Bean, Rosner, 2012; Bardzell, Rosner, Bardzell, 2012; Bettiol, Micelli, 2013) merging design and self-production.

These Do It Yourself practices are characterized primarily by reduced economical investments in R&D and technology (which often are low-cost) and secondly for the on-demand and on-site production of small amounts of material (Tanenbaum et al. 2013), reducing economic risks for self-producers (Rognoli et al., 2015). Nevertheless, the seamless integration of such DIY practices in deltas requires thorough understanding of social and cultural dynamics in acceptance, appreciation, deployment and use of local materials; which has not been explored to date.

Goals of the project

In this project, we will explore the determinants driving and hindering the appreciation and acceptance of (recycle) materials in Deltas; as well as the dynamics of the society to be taken in the account in the development and implementation of DIY material practices for locally produced products.