SERVICES //
At Big Circle Studios we offer a range of services to clients and funders that approach the circular economy through low-cost, low-tech interventions.
Workshop Facilitation
We have always oriented our research and design outputs in a ways that can be shared and communicated with ease — and fun. With open access to information at the heart of what we do, one of our main and most effective methods of sharing what we have learnt is through workshops. These range from intimate, hands on experiences in our studio, to larger demonstrations and online explorations. Contact us to find out how we can engage with you best.
Materials Research
If you want to understand more about how to create a material but don’t know where to start— we’re the team for you! Flexing our chops in research we can package the information that details everything you want to know about a material — from plastic to mycelium. We can work together to identify the level of detail you’re after, and work backwards from there. We are just an email away!
Industry Consulting
Able to put our extensive research and design experience in the waste ecosystem to use, Big Circle is ready and able to apply a creative prototyping methodology to your company or industrial waste. Working within per-established constraints identified by you and our team, we can create processes, materials or products that address the challenges at hand in a meaningful way. All with the goal of lightening our impact on our shared home. Contact us to see how we can achieve this together.
Biomaterial Skills Development
With our eyes on the horizon, we hope to prepare ourselves and those around us for the future that biomaterials hold. Growth in the field of biomaterials is expected to boom in the next decade: the global mycelium market alone is expected to be valued at USD 5.5 billion by 2030, and we hope to facilitate the skills needed to put South Africa and the African continent at the forefront of accessible biomaterials development. At the moment this means a focus on creating low-tech processes to propagate mycellium and bio-leather in Johannesburg. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to learn more.
Community Engagement
At the heart of our work is to nurture a community-oriented circular economy. This takes form through human-centered design research practice, panel discussions, artist collaborations, organisational partnerships, and the development of educational information. As we operate in Bertams, Johannesburg this means working within an economically and socially diverse space. We also view our community more broadly: people willing to take on the challenges of our time with the skills and means available to them. If this sounds like you, we’d love if you reached out.
Material and Product Prototyping
At Big Circle Studios we see ourselves as prototypers. Often of processes, but more tangibly, of materials and products. We approach these directives with the end goal of accessibility in mind — the materials and products are context-aware and build cost-effectiveness, skills capacity, and technical availability into the end result. As an organisation we, at any point, have materials and products in the works. If you have an idea about something you’d like to create we’d love to hear from you and find out what we can make together!