Uva, nocciola e frumento: nuovi ingredienti per l’architettura e il design?

The circular economy represents a sustainable development model and an opportunity to innovate production processes by eliminating the concept of waste. In line with the growing interest of public and private actors on this issue, the article intends to illustrate the developments of the research activities carried out by the circular design team from the Department of Architecture and Design of the Politecnico di Torino. In particular, the paper describes an experience based on two close- ly related activities: CIBUS’ research project (CIrcular economy in the BUilding Sector from agri-food waste) and the innovative educational course Progettare e sviluppare l’economia circolare. The two activities, conducted in collaboration with companies in the Piedmont region, focus on the study of waste from the grape, hazel- nut, and wheat sectors to outline new “ingredients” for architecture and design. By exploring the current (linear) production model, the annual quan- tities of residues were identified and, subsequently, the potential for valorizing agricultural by-products was outlined. The results of the researches are encouraging and show how it is pos- sible to design new scenarios of cross-sectoral collaboration between agriculture and architecture.