Improving access to common goods for people with a low income
During my 2024 internship at The Beach, I was given the time, space and social design guidance to further develop my "Spullenbieb" concept, a system of resource distribution inspired by initiatives like the Fritidsbanken in Sweden and the Library of Things in the United Kingdom.
In a nutshell: this system is meant as a logistical backbone for a library ("bieb") that allows users to borrow things ("spullen"), completely free of charge: tools, electronics, sport items, tents and much more - items that have a high upfront cost, but are only used occasionally in practice.
For people with a very low income, where even the few euros charged by similar initiatives can make a difference, this system gives them access to things that can directly improve their quality of life - be it for maintenance at home, or for a much-needed break from everyday stress to refresh the spirit.
For people with disposable income, the system offers a way to give their useful but space-wasting items (like a high-pressure cleaner that sits in a corner of the garage for 364 days in the year) a noble extra purpose.
For everyone involved, the system's intentfully designed layer of social control ensures that all users are incentivized to take good care of each other's things.
To make the system as easy to use as possible, users of the Spullenbieb would only have to ask an administrator at a physical Spullenbieb location for an item; interaction with the system itself is handled by administrators, through a dedicated Spullenbieb mobile app.
As the final deliverables of my internship, I've written a design document and made a UX-prototype for this app, to be interpreted and implemented by a dedicated app developer. While both were made with a technical audience in mind, the document contains plenty of non-technical information about the core concept and my design decisions, and navigating the UX prototype does not require any technical knowledge.
last updated on 3 june 2026
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