Plastic Reimagined
Date: 2025
Editors: Hyojin Kwon, Darby Fly, Jia Lim
Contributors: Carolyn L. Kane, Pam Longobardi,
Valeriia Poliukhova,
Plastic Reimagined: Material Agency and Circular Design documents a graduate design-research studio led by Assistant Professor Hyojin Kwon at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The publication unites design pedagogy, material research, and civic engagement to explore how post-consumer plastics can be reimagined as architectural media. The studio positions plastic not as environmental residue but as civic matter-an active participant in shaping infrastructures, publics, and pedagogical practices. Through collaborations across architecture, materials science, and sustainability, students and faculty engaged local waste streams, recycling networks, and fabrication labs to develop full-scale prototypes and public installations. The book features essays, drawings, and photographs from the 2025 Plastic Reimagined studio, including contributions from theorist Carolyn L. Kane, artist Pam Longobardi, and materials scientist Valeriia Poliukhova. It also documents the studio's exhibitions at Atlanta Contemporary and The Goat Farm Arts Center, where design research intersected with civic participation and public dialogue. Combining academic reflection and material experimentation, Plastic Reimagined advances a broader vision for civic design education-where architecture operates as a form of material literacy and ecological responsibility. The publication serves as both record and provocation, demonstrating how design research can activate circular practices and cultivate civic imagination in the age of the Plasticene.
