Elegy

I got the opportunity to do this project together with the consumer electronics company Bang & Olufsen. They gave me the task to design a sustainable Bluetooth speaker.

To define the term sustainability, I reviewed a lot of literature concerning ecological design.
My findings show that all products we use will sooner or later become waste. In modern times, a product’s lifetime has shortened dramatically, which has generated a lot of waste. Therefore, I decided to design a longevity speaker and circular system it could be incorporated in.

During my process, I conducted multiple interviews with experts within the company. I made use of sketches and paper models to visualize and try out my concept. I then visualized it with a 3D-model.

The result is a portable Bluetooth speaker that is easy to disassemble and has a changeable appearance. Because of this, the speaker is easily repaired, maintained, and updated, which will increase its lifetime.

Besides designing a speaker, I made a concept of a circular business model for the product. The system includes an accessible repair and update service and a recycling center. The idea of the system is to reuse materials and parts from old and broken Bang & Olufsen speakers and thereby closing the loop.