The Azurém campus of the University of Minho, in Guimarães, now has innovative pieces of outdoor furniture that take advantage of industrial waste and invest in design.
The presentation of that furniture, offered under the Geodesign research project, was held on September 30, next to the Rectory facilities on campus. The session included the unveiling of an allusive sign and is attended by the Pro-Rector for Quality of Life and Infrastructures, Paulo Cruz, the President of the Engineering School, João Monteiro, and the Geodesign project coordinator, Fernando Castro.
The new pieces are distinguished by their aesthetic and functional quality and incorporate non-hazardous industrial waste, namely foundry, metalworking and construction, such as sand, wax, refractory materials and fly ash. This is a greener solution, reducing the consumption of mineral resources and landfilling, and reinforces UMinho’s sustainability strategy

The Geodesign project is the result of three years of research and is led by Fernando Castro, Full Professor at EEUM’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and head of W2V in Guimarães, where the pieces were produced. It also has UMinho, the Center for Waste Recovery, the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro and Francisco Providência Design as partners. The consortium has 636 thousand euros from the Portugal 2020 program. The developed products have as target market the hotel and the urban furniture, trying to respond to the trends of the world architecture with attractive, differentiated, sustainable and low cost concepts. The project also studied a new technological process of manufacturing, pre-treatment of industrial waste and molding, forming and finishing processes, as well as the assessment of the economic and environmental impact of these streams on multiple industrial waste.