Progetto europeo

OpenDot as partner of Cir4Fun together with Politecnico di Milano and University of Florence, partners of R-evolve, has designed a questionnaire for the end user aimed to understand the behaviour when it comes to bulky items. The outcome of this questionnaire will support both OpenDot and the other partners in defining and designing activities and intervention within their projects.

FILL IN THE QUESTIONARY

Cir4Fun integrates the principles of the circular economy into the entire life cycle of furniture, rethinking materials, processes, and business models to reduce waste and maximize reuse. Within the project—which began in late 2024 and is still under development—OpenDot is working on sustainable design and production innovation strategies, promoting collaboration between companies, designers, and citizens to develop modular, repairable, and recyclable furniture. The project demonstrates how manufacturing can be regenerative, reducing environmental impact and creating social value.

How can we transform the way we design, manufacture, and experience furniture?
This is the question that gave rise to Cir4Fun, a major European project that aims to revolutionize the furniture industry through circular design, digital innovation, and public participation. Funded by the Horizon Europe program and coordinated by AIDIMME, Cir4Fun brings together 22 partners, including universities, research centers, companies, and design firms from across Europe. The goal is ambitious: to reduce material and resource waste at every stage of the furniture life cycle, make the supply chain more transparent, and actively involve citizens and manufacturers in the transition to a more sustainable economy.

The approach: data, design, and people

To do this, Cir4Fun experiments with tools and methodologies that combine eco-design, digital technologies, and circular business models.
These include: the Digital Product Passport (DPP), a “digital passport” that tells the story of the materials and processes behind each product; eco-scoring tools to measure environmental impact; and a Data Space dedicated to the furniture supply chain, for the secure sharing of data and knowledge, as well as business models.

All this comes to life in 12 real-world pilot projects, developed in different European countries, which test new ideas for the production, use, and reuse of furniture.

The role of OpenDot: putting circular design principles into practice

In Cir4Fun, OpenDot leads Work Package 6 – Integrations, Piloting, and Evaluations, the operational heart of the project. We are responsible for coordinating all pilots, integrating the solutions developed, and validating the results together with our international partners. But above all, we bring our vision of design as a lever for transformation, capable of connecting people, businesses, and territories in collaborative processes of change.

Building on the experience gained with the Unwanted Furniture project, carried out for AMSA – Gruppo A2A, with the aim of raising awareness about the reuse of furniture and which saw the creation of an open source digital catalog to provide citizens with circular and sustainable strategies to extend the life cycle of old, broken, or obsolete objects, OpenDot is leading a pilot dedicated to the reuse and reconditioning of domestic furniture. 

Through co-design processes, participatory workshops, and engagement strategies, we help companies and communities experiment with new ways of producing, repairing, and reusing. For us, Cir4Fun is an opportunity to put design into practice as a tool for social and environmental innovation.

Our pilot project: giving furniture a new lease of life, together with citizens

The OpenDot pilot project stems from a simple but urgent question: what happens to furniture when we no longer want it?

Together with our European partners CMG (Municipality of Guimarães), CVR (Center for Waste Valorization), and EKPIZO (Consumer Association for Quality of Life), we are developing a model for reusing and reconditioning household furniture that directly involves citizens, artisans, and local businesses.

We organize training and demonstration workshops on repair, hygiene and safety standards, and material circularity; we create an archive of open resources to disseminate knowledge and good practices; we experiment with new social business models that make reuse economically sustainable and replicable.

An ecosystem for change

Cir4Fun combines research and innovation action in a European ecosystem that brings together design, technology, and active citizenship.
In our work as a research and innovation hub, we believe that sustainability arises when people can participate in change—with awareness, creativity, and concrete tools.

With Cir4Fun, OpenDot contributes to imagining a new life cycle for objects and for the relationships that make them meaningful: a design capable of combining care, knowledge, and responsibility.

Key data

• Program: Horizon Europe (Innovation Action)
• Duration: January 2025 – December 2027
• Coordinator: AIDIMME (ES)
• Partners: 22 in 10 European countries
• Total budget: €5.38M
• OpenDot budget: €229,250
• Role: WP6 Leader + Pilot Execution