Developing Sustainable Ceramic Products – Case Studies In Portugal

Abstract

This article shows some projects developed as part of a design course. The chosen theme is ceramic design, and the research (field and documentary) was carried out with a focus on companies in the industrial subsectors of utilitarian and decorative ceramics in Portugal. The main objective of this article is to communicate a set of proposals that were developed within the scope of ceramic design in the Leiria district, covering the municipalities of Leiria, Batalha, Marinha Grande and Caldas da Rainha, all located in the central region of the country. The projects were developed by Product Design students – emphasis on ceramics and glass at the School of Arts and Design of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (Portugal). The ceramic market, especially for faience, is quite vast in the region and there are thousands of products and factories that produce objects in this material. The emphasis on sustainability (economic, social and environmental) provided the differential applied to the projected products.