Hacking has recently become a pertinent theme in design, with more designers instigating projects that deal with open-sourcing and re-appropriating existing objects. We saw this back April at the Milan design festival, with projects such as The Future in the Making that dealt with experimental approaches to production.

Now a show at the current Istanbul design festival is pushing the idea further. Adhocracy, curated by Domus editor Joseph Grima, features a series of projects that address the hacked past and future of making.

Some of the show is dedicated to the simple ingenuity of hacking, such as Pedro Reyes’ series of musical instruments that have been produced using discarded weapons. While other bits look at future production techniques, such as a 3D printer project called Street Food Printing that creates sculptures made of Nutella.

There’s also an exploration of open-sourcing, with a series of designs that help to connect other recycled objects together to form new products. Keystone by Italian design studio Minale Maeda, for instance, shows how a simple universal joint can be used to build furniture that’s been sourced by parts from local manufacturers.

Other work demonstrates our on-going challenge to support emerging populations through frugal-minded innovation. Kiblight by Elizabeth Otieno and Judy Wandia is an LED torch that offers people in Nairobi alternative lighting to that which is powered by the constantly interrupted local grid.

With austerity squeezing the costs of producing something, as well as more open-sourced possibilities thanks to our digital culture, the future of design looks set be increasingly hacked.