Before I continue, let me just link to an introductory background on my concept of REculture. Originally, a group blog on a now defunct website called Posterous that I’d begun in July 2009, choosing it over Tumblr – a decision I now regret given Tumblr survived where Posterous did not. However, within a couple of years, the idea took on wings of its own, and I abandoned working on it myself as I pursued other newer interests.
Today’s inspiration to revisit this material comes from an article I just came across in ArchDaily on a German manufacturer of bathroom and kitchen fittings. New ideas can be added to my original framework of a REculture – REcycle, REpurpose, REuse, REsell, and REpair – derived from my observations on the ground in less industrialized nations with dominant informal sectors in trade and manufacturing. I want to explore and ponder these initiatives. Until now, I’d thought that REculture only existed within my beloved informal economic system and not within highly industrialized ones. But the Germans seem to have made room for themselves, highly industrialized manufacturing nation and all.
The first new word I read today is REmanufacture.
I was like “What?” Remanufacture? What is remanufacturing? The article explains the Dornbracht remanufacture process carried out at the company’s own facilities in Germany through describing the following steps:
1. Disassembly: Parts are inspected and evaluated individually. All taps are dismantled into individual parts and the components can be restored or, if worn out, sent for recycling and replaced.
2. Coating removal: Components are placed in galvanic structures and valuable surface raw materials are recovered by an electrolytic process.
3. Sanding, polishing, brushing: The surface is restored through skillful manual work. Superficial imperfections are eliminated and the metal body is polished to obtain bright surfaces. For brushed surfaces, brush strokes are applied in accurately defined direction.
4. New coatings: From a raw material to a precious metal, the surface coating is applied manually through galvanization, and high quality metal surfaces are applied.
5. Laser marking: The restored product is unmistakably marked as an original Dornbracht ReCrafted with a laser beam.
6. Commissioning: Brand new functional components, such as mixer cartridges, streams and flow regulators are added to the piece.
7. Assembly and packaging: In the final step, the assembly includes a leakage and quality test, before the product is packed in an ecological packaging, accompanied by a certificate.
REfurbishment has also shown up in another design magazine today, but with little or no accompanying descriptions on what they mean, nor does their website have any information on the process of what they call Re-handle. It could just be giving it a spit and polish and sounds like 
competitive PR since its also about taps and fittings, this time by a Danish brand. More powerful than refurbishment are the concepts captured by the German manufacturer’s choice of words – remanufacture and recrafting – both of which embody the idea of making something by hand and with care, etymologically and conceptually. While the meaning of manufacturing has expanded from its origins, craftsmanship has not lost its value, even in the context of mass production (for ex. the craftsmanship that goes into the original product design, or the craftsmanship required for precision dies and tools, etc).
Dornbracht may have marketed their product as being remanufactured, implying its been remade from scratch whilst using the original form and materials, but their branding clearly chooses to speak to the craftsmanship involved in their decision to share their detailed process of lovingly restoring their own products by hand. And, they have taken ownership of REmanufacture and REcrafting, leaving only REfurbishment, REfitting, and REfinishing for the competitor to use – none of which convey the same implications. I’m not here to disparage the Danish design brand, that’s why I don’t promote their name or link to their company. I’m exploring the REculture of these new words being used by quality European brands of products.
What is the relationship between the handful of new words I’ve been introduced to today from industrial design and production in Europe and the ones I had already collected through my design ethnography and travels in places like rural Philippines, urban and rural India and Kenya et al? Is it the degree of industrialization and infrastructure involved in the activity? There is an undeniable disparity in the availability and accessibility of materials, tools, and other resources, such as electricity. This difference in operating environment and context is, for me, inarguable, so I can stop here. Any further distinctions are worthy of a research project and study on their own right. RElationships between the concepts and activities would be important from the practical and theoretical point of view. There is another factor that strikes me, a temporal one. The words I captured in my earliest rough draft of a framework back in July of 2009 were known and used across the world, regardless of the differences in operating environments, the variability of infrastructure and the structure and logics of the contextual economic system. The industrial words I’m reading today are unfamiliar and new in their context of use, and many of them had less positive meanings previous to the way they are now being used. To remake something implies one didn’t make it properly the first time.
This is going to be so much fun to dive into deeper. Venn Diagrams are sparking in my mind.
