Can we ensure free access to local industrial by-products for the university?

OMA - Open Material Archive

Alessandra Capuano
Luca Damiano Collignan
Ana Belen Perez Gonzalez
Luca Toscano

Waste exists when no future is imagined for a material. Today, many industrial by-products still have valuable properties, but are discarded before their potential is explored. OMA responds to this condition by exploring how these materials can be reimagined as resources for research and experimentation.

OMA (Open Material Archive) connects local companies and the academic community in Bolzano, mapping industrial by-products and making them accessible as material resources. Although the region is known for advanced waste management, many materials still end their life through incineration or energy-intensive recycling processes, often outside the territory. At the same time, students and researchers show a strong interest in working with these materials, but access remains limited and unstructured.

The main output of the project is platform designed to offer fast, direct, and free access to industrial by-products, while providing guidance on how to approach them. OMA is presented as a reliable and straightforward academic tool.

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At the core of the platform is the Archive, a catalogue of material profiles that include images, key characteristics, and information provided by the producing companies. These profiles are designed to offer design inspiration rather than detailed technical descriptions, and to be created quickly by relying as much as possible on information provided directly by the companies.

A Map shows the location of all participating companies and groups materials by producer. Company contact details are visible only to university members, in order to protect companies that provide materials free of charge.

The Contribute section enables students and companies to propose new materials through a simple form. Accepted materials are documented by a moderator and added to the archive, supporting the continuous growth of OMA.

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Finally, each material listed online is also available as a Physical sample at MaMa’s Atelier C4.03, allowing users to experience materials through touch and observation. This sensorial dimension is supported online through close-up images and intuitive icons.

A project made in the course

Bolzano Open City Laboratory

“The question of what kind of city we want cannot be divorced from the question of what kind of people we want to be, what kind of social relations we seek, what relations to nature we cherish, what style of life we desire, what aesthetic values we hold” (Harvey, 2012). Staring from these considerations, the course took the form of an “Open City Laboratory”. In the first phase of the course, we listened to and oriented ourselves towards what Bolzano has to offer and what it might need. Critically reflecting on our encounters with the city and its actors, we detected possible spaces for intervention and developed situated proposals for eco-social transformations in Bolzano.
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