Nathanael York

As a designer I’m Passionate about the right to repair movement and I subsequently want to design products that empower people to repair and maintain products themselves. Driven by a love of outdoor pursuits I am also conscious of the wider issues of environmental sustainability surrounding product design, leaving me eager to be involved in the future of sustainable design with a particular curiosity as to the role of circular design and the circular economy in achieving this. In spite of generally taking a pragmatic approach to design, I do enjoy exploring  sculptural forms within my work, drawing aesthetic inspiration from a variety of sculptors.

This coffee machine aims to combat both design that is hostile to repair and manufacturing for obsolescence, instead aiming to empower the consumer, encouraging both OEM repair and creative repair of domestic appliances by the consumers themselves.

Designed as an exploration of ideals that could be put forward to any domestic appliance to promote greater levels repair whilst also valuing a simple construction and materiality for both manufacture and to reduce complexity in an end of life scenario for both components and the whole product.

The floating one-piece shell is designed to merely visually shelter the internal components without greatly obstructing access to the internals.

Instead of a tightly compact internal layout the design opts instead for an open layout across a singular plane allowing for access but also allowing a space for customisation and creative repair.

The coffee machine is constructed of an aluminium chassis and shell cover designed to be manufactured simply from sheet metal with as few processes as possible with polymer peripheral components and internal component shells. The design uses readily accessible fixings and implements tool free access using thumb screws,   instead of using proprietary or security fasteners.

Although the prototype itself relies heavily on one-off additive manufacturing through 3D printing, the forms of all the plastic internal components are designed specifically for commercial injection moulding processes.