Is it possible to make an upcycled mobile phone entirely from recycled materials? One that consumers will want to buy? How about at a price that puts it within reach of the mass market?

If your interest is piqued take a look at the following concept called Remade developed by a number of my Nokia Design colleagues from our Calabasas Studio – Andrew Gartrell, Duncan Burns, Rhys Newman, Raphael Grignani, Pascal Wever, Tom Arbisi, Simon James, Pawena Thimaporn and Peter Knudsen. Photos and a video of Remade appear here, and I guess a more corporatesque press release (if you go for that kind of thing) will eventually appear.

Of all the internal concepts I’ve followed this year this is one I keep returning to, not least because sustainability is a pressing issue in a billion+ products-per-year industry – but also because the team tackled a number of related weighty issues in what was a far reaching project. I hope that in due course more of their design thinking makes it into the public domain, not least to stimulate critical feedback from people like your good selves. (I’m happy to pass your comments onto the team – email info at janchipchase dot com so you can converse with them directly).

Some readers will recognize the use of the term upcycling from Cradle to Cradle and it’s fair to say that well-thumbed copies have been circulated and more importantly provoked debate within our community. And yes the concept evolves the thinking about cultures of repair and innovation that can be found on the streets from Accra to Bangalore to Chengdu. A presentation of this research can be downloaded from here (PowerPoint, 4MB)

Returning to the original question from this post: Is it possible to make an upcycled mobile phone entirely from recycled materials? One that consumers want to buy? At a price that puts it within reach of the mass market? The discussion is well underway.

These photos? We joined three two of the Remade team in Accra where they were in the middle of testing and refining the concept with the aid of the local population.The gent pictured? Owner, and talented entrepreneur of a neighbourhood mobile phone repair shop.