About

“Salvage by design” is an approach and philosophy centred on the creative reuse of waste and discarded materials as primary inputs for new design, engineering, and manufacturing processes.

This concept shifts the perspective from viewing materials as having a single, linear life cycle (creation, use, disposal) to one where they are perpetually valued assets.

The Core Idea involves intercepting “waste” at various stages (pre-consumer scraps to post-consumer) and incorporating their unique properties into new designs, thus extending the lifecycle of materials and imbuing them with new value. The term is a play on words, referencing both: “Salvage” as rescue: Saving materials that would otherwise be discarded as waste. “Selvedge” as fabric edge: Utilising the self-finished, non-fraying edge of a fabric, often discarded in traditional manufacturing, as a structural or design element.

The Core Principles

1. Circular Economy Integration: It is a practical application of circular economy principles. The design process begins with analyzing existing “waste streams” (industrial offcuts, end-of-life products, salvaged components) and designing a new product around the properties and availability of these specific salvaged materials.
2. Resource Efficiency: The fundamental goal is to maximize resource efficiency by intercepting valuable materials before they enter landfills or require energy-intensive recycling processes, thus minimizing the extraction of new raw materials.
3. Value Addition: It emphasises up-cycling—transforming discarded materials into products of equal or greater quality and value (aesthetic, functional, or both). This distinguishes it from traditional recycling, which often results in a lower-quality material.
4. Inherent Limitations as Design Opportunities: The designer accepts the inherent limitations, variations, and “imperfections” of salvaged materials (e.g., specific dimensions, existing wear, color variations). These characteristics are not hidden but are leveraged as unique design features, contributing to the narrative, authenticity, and one-of-a-kind nature of the final product.
5. Sustainability as a Default: Sustainability is not an add-on feature but an intrinsic part of the design challenge and solution. The approach forces innovation in material assembly, and aesthetics to accommodate non-standardised inputs.

The Salvage Method

Design-led approach: Instead of the waste material limiting the design, the material’s properties and potential are analysed first, and the design process is adapted to leverage these characteristics, often creating luxurious or high-quality items from what would otherwise be considered trash. 

Waste Reduction: The primary goal is to tackle the issue of textile waste in landfills by designing with discarded materials as the raw input.

Uniqueness: Products created through salvage design are often one-of-a-kind due to the inherent variations in the source materials, offering consumers something unique that cannot be mass-produced in the traditional sense.

Sustainability and Ethics: It aligns with the principles of the circular economy and “slow clothing”, emphasizing mindful resource use, reducing demand for new raw materials, and lowering carbon emissions and water usage associated with new textile production.