At a Repair Café, broken belongings aren’t headed for the trash. The Material Exchange, a student-run group that promotes sustainability through the barter and reuse of materials, launched its first Repair Café, inviting students to bring in damaged goods and learn how to fix them. Repair Cafés are community spaces where people can bring in broken goods and receive fixing services for them, an idea that came from Dutch environmentalist and journalist Martine Postma. The Parsons’ Repair Café is now listed on the official Repair Café tracker. The Material Exchange is located at Parsons East on the second floor and is open 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.

One of the students behind the Repair Café hopes the project tackles a larger problem within design education: waste. Saina Udayagiri, a fourth-year product design major at Parsons School of Design and one of the organizers, told The New School Free Press that the group’s goal is to reduce the amount of discarded materials produced at design schools. At the Material Exchange, students trade materials for points that are used to get materials back from the exchange. Run entirely by students and volunteers, its aim is twofold: to reduce the production of material waste, and to build a robust community. Attendees at the Repair Café ranged from students to faculty to non-New School affiliates.

The idea to bring a Repair Café to Parsons was proposed by part-time faculty member Timothy Furstnau, who teaches integrated design. Having previously co-organized multiple Repair Cafés in upstate New York, Furstnau believed the model could benefit the New School community. Furstnau shared, “There’s a problem with design — that it’s so focused on innovation and we neglect things that need maintenance and repair and care … I’d say this is a part of a sort of counter education or improving of education at Parsons — to really focus on maintenance and care.” Student volunteers at the Material Exchange loved these sentiments and set their minds to creating Parsons’ very first Repair Café. Another student organizer, Ani Georgiades, a third-year integrated design major at Parsons, said “[we’re] trying to build a community of people who want to go back to just fixing stuff, reusing stuff, instead of always needing [things] to be new.” Oftentimes, initiatives claiming sustainability are focused around consumption — like thrifting — and can produce even more waste. The Repair Café allows for the amount of waste produced to be minimized as much as possible through extending the life of existing objects.

The Repair Café was held in Room M104 of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center. Walking into the café immediately created a welcoming energy for visitors. The most popular table at the café was the sewing table. One student had his jeans repaired, another guest had his sweater customized, and student volunteers continued to craft in the down time when there was no one requiring repair. The student, Finn Fielding, a first-year undeclared student at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, who had his jeans repaired said, “It was really [homey] and it was a really fun event. There was a lot of good company and it was just a lot of people, you know, doing their art and just like helping the community.”

Students, and student volunteers interacting while various articles of clothing receive repair, courtesy of The Material Exchange.

For organizers, the Repair Café is as much about community as it is about fixing objects. When asked about the benefits of the Repair Café, Udayagiri said, “It’s a great place to build a community where we’re able to give back a little bit.” Georgiades also shared a story of when she was able to repair a sewing machine for her local high school’s theater, and through that she was able to help speed up the process of their theater production because they were previously sewing everything by hand. The school said they had to do so because they were unable to afford a new sewing machine. Georgiades decided to take a look at the sewing machine and see if she was able to fix it. Through a little tinkering Georgiades was able to fix the sewing machine and allow for the production to accelerate, which is exactly the kind of do-it-yourself attitude the Repair Café cultivates.

Students looking to get involved with the Material Exchange, by either volunteering or seeking repair services, can visit their website and check out their instagram to stay up to date with their latest events.