London Design Festival 2014: natural materials suspended in resin to create furniture by Italian design duo Alcarol will be displayed at the Mint Gallery during the London Design Festival next week (+ slideshow).
Alcarol are presenting their New Visions collection as part of Elements of Craft, an exhibition curated by Lina Kanafani at the Mint Gallery focusing on the influence of craft in design.
Each design is made from natural materials gathered in the areas around the designers' home country, from the Venetian lagoon in the south to the Dolomite mountains in the north.
These materials are combined with resin to preserve their natural surfaces, resulting in three different designs.
"The new pieces presented at the Mint Gallery aim to capture some unusual atmospheres of these unique places by freezing time at the end of the material's life cycle, thereby giving it a new life," said Alcarol.
The FishEye stools and side tables are centred around sections of timber poles dredged up from Venice's canals, which are sculpted by the weather and Teredo Navalis – shipworms that create patterns of circular holes around the surface layers of the oak logs.
The designers filled cracks in the wood and worm holes with transparent resin, formed into a cylinder with swivel casters on its base.
"FishEye is created with a view to the aesthetic value of the timber of the historical poles that have endured decades of weathering in the canals of Venice," said the designers.
Also designed for similar purposes, the Dolomyth pieces are formed around a chunk of mountain rock complete with natural mosses and lichens.
The geological layers ranging from pink to grey in colour are visible in the stone, which is harvested from an abandoned quarry.
"Dolomyth aims to capture the complex relief of the Dolomites, which is rich in forms and the result of a successful and harmonious combination of structural shapes and climatic conditions," the designers said.
The rock is cut into a cuboid that is completed by resin over the mossy surface, creating a flat top.
The final piece is the Undergrowth bookshelf or console, with three shelves of solid oak planks connected by steel rods that pass through the wood.
Again, the mossy sides of the planks are captured in resin to preserve the natural edges.
"This bookshelf is a self-supporting structure looking for utmost essentiality, giving the sections of the mossy log the effect of being suspended in the air," said the designers.
Alcarol's products will form part of a collection of over 30 pieces by emerging designers, displayed against pieces from the 1970s and 1980s for Elements of Craft.
The exhibition will open at the Mint Gallery, 2 North Terrace, to coincide with the London Design Festival on 13 September and continue until the end of the month.