Doing More with Less. Design, Materials and Circularity

Exhibition “Doing More with Less. Design, Materials and Circularity” – Sapienza University of Rome

As part of the Third Mission project BiblioClimaTech, funded by Sapienza University of Rome and promoted by the Faculty of Architecture in collaboration with the Central Library of the Faculty of Architecture, the Ludovico Quaroni Library of the PDTA Department, the Library of the Department of History, Representation and Restoration of Architecture (DSDRA), the Library of the Department of Environmental Biology, the Mario Costa Library of the CERSITES Center, and the Library of the Department of Architecture and Design (DiAP), under the scientific coordination of Prof. Alessandra Battisti, an awareness-raising campaign dedicated to waste reduction and the responsible use of resources will be launched through the traveling exhibition “Doing More with Less. Design, Materials and Circularity.”

The exhibition was created by Giulia Farace, Domitilla de Gironimo, Sabrina Lucibello, Elisa Pecci, and Carmen Rotondi (researcher and coordinator).

The exhibition brings together research projects and educational experiments that explore design-driven innovation in the field of recycled circular materials and bio-based resources. Agricultural and industrial waste, living organisms, natural fibers, and digital processes become the starting point for new materials, new production chains, and new relationships between people, objects, and the environment.

The initiative is conceived as a traveling exhibition hosted across the network of libraries participating in BiblioClimaTech, starting during the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR), according to the following schedule:

• 23-27 November: Ludovico Quaroni Library, PDTA Department, Via Flaminia 72, Rome

• 30 November – 10 December: Mario Costa Library, CERSITES Center, Via XXIV Maggio, Latina

• 14-18 December: Library of the DSDRA Department, Piazza Borghese 9, Rome

• 18-22 January 2027: Library of the Department of Environmental Biology, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, Rome

• 25-29 January 2027: Central Library of the Faculty of Architecture, Via Antonio Gramsci 53, Rome

• 1-5 February 2027: Library of the DiAP Department, Via Flaminia 359, Rome

At the Mario Costa Library in Latina, the exhibition will coincide with the event “From Waste to Resources: The Challenge of Urban Mining,” curated by researcher Roberta Palmieri as part of the FSL project Knowing to Act… for a Sustainable Future, aimed at school students.

The exhibition is organized into three sections:

• Reduce – Reuse – Recycle, dedicated to strategies for reducing resource consumption, extending product lifecycles, and enhancing the value of waste materials.

• Rethink – Reinforce – Repair, promoting innovative approaches to circular design and resource stewardship.

• Explore, a hands-on space where visitors can gain direct knowledge of materials through observation and tactile experience.

By engaging and raising awareness among students, faculty members, researchers, and citizens, the initiative seeks to promote a culture of waste prevention, reuse, and circularity, demonstrating how research and design can make a tangible contribution to the ecological transition.