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Professor of Sustainable Design on Why Students Should Take Existing Products Apart

Learning through teardown

By Rain Noe - September 24, 2015

in design.edu | Sustainable Design

Following the hullabaloo around the now-infamous Beats teardown debacle, we're excited to announce we've got our own teardown series in the works—this one done by a seasoned industrial designer! We're not yet allowed to say what the first object we're tearing down is, but we can tell you it's a tool many of you use.

If you ask the general public what tearing a product down is about, most will say it's about figuring out how much an iPhone actually costs in materials. But to those of you learning industrial design, teardowns can be an incredibly useful way to accelerate your education: Why is the housing shaped like this on the inside? What does this little spring clip do? Why is there a supporting rib here, but not over there?

Professor James Billing, who's a Senior Lecturer of Design at the UK's Nottingham Trent University, sees teardowns as having even more value than that: They can teach students about how to design more sustainable items.

Image via Joe Parker

In the following video, produced by the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop, Billing explains what his students can glean by taking cheap toasters and electric kettles apart:

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martin carascon

9 years ago

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@m powers: i dont think it is. and it should be.
some reverse engineering projects were part of my course (Product Design and Technology) back when i was a student (circa 2004), and i think there is more of an emphasis on this nowadays. but i think it should have more of a presence in pre-degree course curriculms because it is a simple but effective approach to design and gets people asking [and answering for themselves in some cases] the right questions.
i love unravelling any construction (that i dare to unravel) to find out how it works and why a part is made a particular way. its something i enjoy doing with my kids aswell - especially as its usually to fix something they have broken......:P

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m powers

9 years ago

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Where I went, this was Project 3 of Manufacturing & Assembly Technology 1. Is this not common across most ID programs?

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Eric Dorfner

9 years ago

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Pretty simple, yet 100% valid and could benefit us all. Until this video, I've never even thought of taking a small appliance apart and recycling the plastic or subassemblies. I just chuck it in the trash even though I recycle paper, plastic, and glass every day. Thanks!

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