What happens when we stop treating furniture as disposable and start treating it as infrastructure for care, dignity, and community resilience?

In this interactive Mainstage conversation, Xenia Dolovolva, founder of The Furniture Repair Bank, explores how furniture repair and reuse can become powerful tools for climate action, community resilience, and systems change. Through a short talk, outside voices, and audience participation, the session examines furniture poverty, planned obsolescence, material waste, and the growing need for repair-centered design.

Participants will hear stories from the intersection of furniture, equity and designing the circular economy. Together, we’ll explore how reuse systems can strengthen communities, reduce waste, and reshape our relationship to the objects we live with every day. Audience members will be invited to contribute ideas and participate in a collaborative discussion about the future of repair, reuse, and equitable access to home furnishings.