Circular Society by Patrick Mc Callion from uk

Time! …… like our resources, is limited, so I will get straight to my 3 core aims.

1. Technology and materials = Environmental Gain. At the time the 4 was innovative, practical, and just downright groovy. Continuing this heritage, my 4 is up to date, but in an less familiar way. For a car to last in production for as long as the first model did it had to keep moving with the time to stay relevant in its market place. This is probably the most important task that a new 4 could aim to do. In our western disposable world, products aren’t designed to last. My aim is to create a car that is almost “Naked” when it is first bought. It won’t have any exterior panels, or plastics spread out over the interior. Instead the cars chassis and structural shell is designed to be a car without all the extra rubbish that doesn’t need to be there. Do we need scuff guards on our doors, or specifically molded logos to tell people what car we drive. We need to design these elements into the one and only mould instead of having a thousand moulds pumping out plastic pollution. A car is a car, and it should do what it needs to. You might be thinking now…”Where’s the Love Man”, and that’s the queue for part 2.
2. Personality through customization and design = personal gain. I am a car fan, and love the 4. I have owed 5’s and clios, so I know what I’m talking about when I say I can appreciate the personality and character of a small Renault. In the 60’s when the 4 was launched, the world was a different place. Times were different, and people were starting to afford to get mobile with personal transport. Its no wonder why people formed bonds with their cars as it changed their lives and opened up the world to them. Nowadays that bond with the car has deteriorated due to other stimulating products and status defining products. My 4 aims to bring back the kids by giving them this new open source approach to motoring. As the car come naked, people have to add their own accessories. The market is currently pushing customization onto customers, and it helps to individualize your car. But adding a sticker or two that will be on the car for years and never replaced doesn’t feel like customization to me. As my shell is naked, the options are endless, and I intended them to be manufactured in local areas to the vehicle, and by the people who own it. This is where the materials from the circular economy come in. people will collect their own recycling and use it to make parts in a Renault community center as a hobby and not out of necessity. In the 60’s people made their own clothes, the in the 80s new plastics and tech made it easier to buy new. In the millennium, we now are environmental, but at the same time customization is coming back into fashion. I see the whole thing coming full circle, where people will enjoy making things they need from what they already have. I call this the circular society, and think if the circular economy is to become the way of the future, the public have to be conscious of their own products and not just have companies do the work for us, we need to learn to reuse. We need systems put in place to help us all…..queue part 3
3. Systems = social gain. We need systems to put all these ideas into the present and not just a conceptual idea. If we all recycle and keep our own items, rather than give them away to be shipped to a landfill waiting to be sold to china so they can use it as we are too lazy to do it ourselves, we can use it as currency to by parts for our cars, or other non 4 related objects. We need to attach a value to recycling, and that’s what will motivate people to reuse and recycle. The companies who make the product should have a obligation to buy back the raw materials t ourselves, we can use it as currency to by parts for our cars, or other non 4 related objects.
4. i am passionate about this idea, and know that its the systems we put in place, and the materials we can responsibly use that will define our age. only then can we have a car thats amazing....not far to go i hope. i hope this touches you as it has me.