Pieter Beerten

Design.nexus is the product design research group of Ghent University's Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, based on Campus Kortrijk. The group works at the intersection of product design, sustainability and industry, and its existing lines of research map closely onto the scope of the Eureka Lightweighting Call: advanced and alternative materials, smart design and production methods, digital design technologies, and design for repairability, disassembly and recyclability. In the design.sustainability pillar, multiple projects focus on utilizing alternative bio-based materials, e.g. through the Bio-Makerspace and the BBoBB project (16 partners, bio-based construction value chains), and on sustainability and circularity in medical device design, e.g. the D4SMD project. Other projects address design for circularity, circular business models, and open-ended design — taking into account changes in context to extend product lifecycles. In the design.industry pillar, projects relate to digital production methods and scalable manufacturing (Industry 5.0), run through the Computational Design & Digital Fabrication Lab. For repairability and disassembly, the group's Design for Assembly Meaning (DFAM) methodology aids in developing products that are more intuitive to assemble and disassemble, with sustainability and maintenance in mind.