Open Access

Venkat Aryan, Maziar Rezai, Christa Liedtke, Marc Hassenzahl

• Sustainability issues in makerspaces stem from the unstructured nature of rapid prototyping and the lack of frameworks that bridge ethical, ecological, and social concerns. This study investigates how sustainability-related values are articulated, negotiated, and translated into material and procedural practices within makerspaces, and how designers shape these processes. Drawing on in-depth interviews across diverse makerspace contexts, the analysis develops an empirically grounded account of prefigurative design, showing how aspirational values are embedded in collaborative making. The findings identify value anchoring, anticipatory material experimentation, and collective governance as constituting a prefigurative design space - aSustainability issues in makerspaces stem from the unstructured nature of rapid prototyping and the lack of frameworks that bridge ethical, ecological, and social concerns. This study investigates how sustainability-related values are articulated, negotiated, and translated into material and procedural practices within makerspaces, and how designers shape these processes. Drawing on in-depth interviews across diverse makerspace contexts, the analysis develops an empirically grounded account of prefigurative design, showing how aspirational values are embedded in collaborative making. The findings identify value anchoring, anticipatory material experimentation, and collective governance as constituting a prefigurative design space - a theoretical and material construct in which alternative sociotechnical futures can be explored and collaboratively enacted. However, realizing this potential requires navigating constraints such as weak governance, superficial sustainability engagement, resource limitations, and difficulties in sustaining ethical commitments. The study highlights the evolving role of designers as mediators who facilitate reflexive deliberation, cultivate productive irresolution, and translate prefigurative orientations into actionable and context-sensitive design practices. By specifying the conditions and mechanisms that sustain prefigurative design, the study shows how makerspaces generate both technical and non-technical outcomes, functioning not only as hubs for prototyping but also as environments in which socially just and sustainability-oriented futures are materially and procedurally crafted.…