Despite its rich history and cultural significance, the handloom industry in Bangladesh is struggling to survive. An exemplary case, Shaoil Bazar handloom village, recycles textile waste from clothing factories into various textile products using indigenous weaving techniques. Our two months fieldwork studies revealed that the local handloom craft hangs onto the last threads and textile scraps of the world's second largest ready-made garments (RMG) producer, Bangladesh.

Thus, the project aims to uplift traditional textile handcraft by empowering local weavers through nurturing alternative modes of textile production and fostering resilience to inspire a shift towards conscious textile-making practices. Applying our situated perspectives and understanding of the craft at Shaoil Bazar we utilise the lens of conscious incrementality for the design proposition, which is divided into four phases.

The first phase, “Reinforcing the Existing” focuses on supporting current practices by implementing and testing small scale improvements for formal logistic points, waste collection, workers facilities and a new makers community workshop. The “Transitional” phase leverages existing practices such as dyeing, construction and tailoring as important programs and actors to contribute to new knowledge about the relationship of the craft to the built fabric, ecologies, and vocational training. The third phase “Conscious Making” reduces the reliance on textile waste from the RMG industry's detrimental socio-environmental impacts and thus integrates second-hand clothing. New modular building components for sorting, tailoring, and workshops are integrated as an extension of the existing bazar to foster spaces of exchange. Finally, the last phase identifies how alternative modes of production and empowering of local weaving craftsmanship can go “Beyond Shaoil Bazar”. To influence regional, national, and international actors’ various mediums of sharing the socio-material narratives are disseminated through the site, textile products, and digital media.

(re)Made in Bangladesh embodies a systematic and thoughtful progression that prioritizes awareness and reflection of local weaving craftsmanship while also paving the way to influence global actors and consumers towards conscious sustainable textile practices.