From an Empty Warehouse to a Creative Ecosystem: The Circular Design Collective Says Goodbye

The Circular Design Collective opened its doors for the last time for it’s Open Day on Sunday 16 November to celebrate National Recycling Week. Led by FB IDEAs in collaboration with Gamuda Land Australia, what began as a short term activation has shown how sustainability, creativity and community can coexist as a lived reality in Fishermans Bend.

Community Open Day to celebrate National Recycling Week

The Open Day was both a celebration and a farewell. It brought the community of innovators together to reflect, connect and share a year of ideas shaped by waste, imagination and purpose. The Open Day also highlighted the transformation of a once empty warehouse behind Gamuda Land’s The Canopy display suite. Since January, the Collective has supported a diverse group of innovators, each rethinking what is possible when creative practice meets circular design. Together they have formed a prototype for a new kind of creative economy driven by connection, collaboration and care.

Visitors moved between workstations and displays, taking part in activities, making objects from recycled materials and exploring reanimated textiles and reimagined instruments. Each of the innovators in residence, including After, Dodgy Paper, Lousy Ink, No Bull Cause, Precious Plastic Melbourne, the Remaker Project, Power Move, Artists for Kids Culture Arts Bus and Pianos Recycled, showed off their creativity in answer to the same question:

What can we make when we refuse to waste what we have?

We also welcomed the City of Port Philip Mens Shed who ran a community BBQ, the Killara Foundation’s beautifully painted coffee cart and Justin Dwyer created a soundtrack for the day using recycled and reclaimed materials.

Showcasing collective impact over the last year

Throughout the year, the Collective’s impact extended well beyond its walls, inviting collaborators and visitors in from the community.

Since May we have hosted 20+ events and welcomed over 700 people into the space.

After the official launch in May, After worked with Collarts and Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School students on the From Trash to Treasure exhibition. Then in July, Precious Plastics Melbourne hosted school holiday programs that encouraged young circular thinkers. The Weaving Three Stories workshop deepened links between circular design and Caring for Country. Lousy Ink and Dodgy Paper presented The Leftovers, a showcase of work made from repurposed ink and recycled paper.

In September Artists for KIds Culture delivered workshops in the space, inspiring young people to create art from waste and encouraging them to use repurposed and recycled materials for their creativity. In October, Quiet RIOT’s PowerMOVE, took over the warehouse with support from fellow innovators to build, paint and test the kinetic dancefloor that then lit up Fed Square during Melbourne Fringe.

From August to October, No Bull Cause hosted a series of Think Tank reimagine what these unused cans and plastic beer tops from CBCo could be transformed into. The winner was Nick Hogan for his inventive coaster design.

Then in November, inspired by the Think Tank design challenge, in partnership with Port Phillip Secondary College we hosted the annual PortAL event at the Circular Design Collective where 65+ students and teachers worked with local innovators to create objects using waste from CBCo Brewing. The results from the lively 2 hour session were remarkable!

Our last public event of the year was hosted by Pianos Recycled, showcasing the prototype instruments they made using reclaimed piano materials in collaboration with Holmesglen TAFE.

Looking ahead

As the Circular Design Collective in its current form draws to a close, the sense of transition was unmistakable. This week the warehouse will be packed up, tools and materials sorted, and walls cleared. By next week, there will be no sign of the creative ecosystem that flourished here.

Yet its impact will remain in the innovators who met in this space, the collaborations sparked between neighbours, the students encouraged to rethink waste and the community who saw circular design in action rather than theory.

The Circular Design Collective may be leaving Munro Street, but the ecosystem it nurtured, built on creativity, sustainability and community connection, will continue across Fishermans Bend and beyond.

Nothing is truly ending. The work moves with the people who carry it forward.