Processes for managing and designing circularity in the Italian furniture industry. Current practices and future strategies for tools of interconnectivity.

The research project has carried out a preliminary analysis of the field, identifying a range of stakeholders within three key categories (waste producers/managers, manufacturers, designers) based on a commonly available classification. Representing the first two categories, a series of interview and focus group sessions have been conducted in order to understand the issues and priorities, revealing three main problematic areas: limited awareness and mistaken perception of circular materials, lack of trust in the quality of environmental impact data about materials, and the difficulty of designing with circular materials and setting up an effective and reliable supply chain. Based on these three areas, possible directions of development have been outlined for the development of experimental digital tools, highlighting the potential of Artificial Intelligence technologies (in particular LLMs) for acting as a well-informed “translator” between various professional figures who otherwise have difficulty with collaborating due to the specific jargons used.