GEORGE SQUARE DINING TABLE, 2020

What is the role of waste material in contemporary design production? How can designers rethink the value of objects, materials and processes considered as waste? George is a collection of furniture made from reclaimed sheets of Alpi wood, using pieces discarded through industrial production to create new hand-crafted objects. The discarded scraps – sheets made from different colours and finishes – have been glued together to form a thick block of wood. In this way, sheets that are usually used as surface veneer, become a structural element, inverting the relationship between form and function, decoration and construction. Treating this processed material as a block of timber, Marco Campardo has chiselled the edges of the table, as a tongue-in-cheek homage to the great master George Nakashima. These chiselled blocks form an appealing series of stools, coffee tables and dining tables, offering a new aesthetic alternative to solid wood furniture. Inverting the relationship between the natural and the artificial, waste and resource, this project subtly questions the way we value materiality in the digital age.