'Nobody, after all, seems to have noticed that wood is an organic matter, that is, the equivalent of what skin, bones, teeth are. Yet it is precisely because of its biological origin that wood is so present in our lives. The relationship that men have with this material is closely connected to our gene of the human species.
For some ancestral reason we and he recognize each other, it would seem to say Emanuele Coccia, the Italian philosopher, author of the famous book The life of plants. The intellectual settled in Paris, together with another great luminary, Stefano Mancuso, author of The Nation of Plants, laid the foundations for a new green sentimental education, which brings the Earth back to the centrality of plants.
And therefore of wood, as also emerged in the exhibition Cambio dei Formafantasma, whose thematic development around this material can be considered to all intents and purposes a milestone in the development of a species awareness.
So it's no surprise that these three protagonists of the contemporary debate on the future of the planet are a source of inspiration for many creatives. Everywhere, even in Copenhagen, a land of circularity, sustainability and a return to the rhythms of a primordial life. Were it not for the climate, one would think that the Danes are the new indigenous people.
From anthropology we return to design. It is not possible to tackle a project around any essence, from maple to ash, from oak to pine, and its possible experimental evolutions, without starting from a system analysis. Because these barrels have always played a fundamental role in all of our lives.
Since our ancestors came down from the trees, wood has allowed us to discover fire, warm us and bring light. To build our first hunting tools and a roof under which to find shelter, to invent the wheel to cultivate the fields and nurses, as well as boats to transport food and everything that served to trigger the evolution process of the species . Wood is a vital material, which is why we must return to using it with respect and as needed.
Let's skip a few centuries and we arrive at the times of the industrial revolution and its domestic interiors: the furnishings, walls and floors are made of wood. Although this matter is so close to our body that it touches it, it really seems that we are distracted, until we lose emotional contact with what generates it: the forest and its trees.
Since the goal imposed by the climate urgency suggests that we move, even very quickly, towards a more sustainable and responsible world, we must learn to listen to the material we love to surround ourselves with so much, because every single board, piano e lamella tells a story of a flowing life. Photosynthesis reminds us of this.
Philosophy, before, and the ecosystem now suggest that we reread Calvino and rediscover ourselves as new Barons Rampanti: there is no need to go back to the trees to rebuild the lost balance, only to cultivate that empathic resonance useful for recomposing harmony with creation.
It is used and not abused, it is taken care of and not wasted. Basically it is interpreted and not consumed, like the projects intercepted in Copenhagen, a city that boasts a long tradition of wood craftsmanship. Here the new generation of designers tries to challenge custom: from the mix of local knowledge and environmental awareness a new aesthetic is emerging whose codes reveal different and complementary stories. Small stories of regenerative projects.
Weight of wood by Christian + Jade for Dinesen
It is a very contemporary journey to discover the different expressive possibilities of wood. This experience, which reflects on the precepts of Emanuele Coccia and the scientist Peter Wohllenben, has reinvented familiar objects. As? Reflecting on the qualities that the couple likes to define as 'cautious': they are the weight, the movement, the balance which together have contributed to the definition of a collection of rocking horses and swings. Together, at a slow pace, they design a new domestic harmony. Code poetic.
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