Well they certainly like to repair stuff in Amsterdam, don’t they!
I followed a tweet to this article, and I think it’s a great story:
“At Amsterdam’s first Repair Cafe, an event originally held in a theater’s foyer, then in a rented room in a former hotel and now in a community center a couple of times a month, people can bring in whatever they want to have repaired, at no cost, by volunteers who just like to fix things. Conceived as a way to help people reduce waste, the Repair Cafe concept has taken off since its debut two and a half years ago. The Repair Cafe Foundation has raised about $525,000 through a grant from the Dutch government, support from foundations and small donations, all of which pay for staffing, marketing and even a Repair Cafe bus.”
Reading this reminded me that not long ago I read about an Amsterdam-based company who issued a Repair Manifesto. And in fact, the article goes on to say: “[...] Martine Postma, a former journalist, came up with the concept [...] inspired by a design exhibit about the creative, cultural and economic benefits of repairing and recycling”. Just the one I’d been reading of.
Platform 21 is a design platform aiming to positively influence the relationship between user and product. “Through our projects we question today’s society, connect amateur and professional creativity, reveal the making process, and stimulate dialogue and the sharing of creative knowledge. We believe that showing and sharing the process of creation is a powerful way to engage a broad audience in divers aspects of design. It opens up the assumption that design is a professionals’ creative discipline only.”
Platform21’s Repair Manifesto opposes throwaway culture and celebrates repair as the new recycling. The last few months the Manifesto has been downloaded, blogged about and adopted all over the world – apparently more than a million times!
The idea has also been picked up by iFixit.com.
So what do you think? Would it be nice to have a place like the Repair Cafe’ here in London? Do you know of any such places here already? If you do, please leave a comment and let us know!
