Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Industrial Design
Department
Industrial Design
First Advisor
Paolo Cardini
Second Advisor
Sara Ossana
Third Advisor
Andrew Haarsager
Abstract
The Boring Objects Bureau is an anti-sustainability design studio. Through its work, the Bureau is interested in developing new strategies that can challenge the stereotypes of what sustainability looks like for the products that underpin our modern lives.
The Bureau’s first investigation focused on the smartphone, a product where breakage and decay through obsolescence is inevitable. As a result, people are faced with either the expected sustainable approach of repair, which can be expensive and inconvenient, or replacement, which costs more and restarts the cycle. The Bureau therefore wanted to ask: could this breakage and decay instead be embraced as a feature?
Recommended Citation
Fan, Eric, "Boring Objects Bureau" (2026). Masters Theses. 1539.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1539
Creative Commons License
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