The Portuguese designers Pedrita have been invited to coordinate one of the prestigious workshops promoted by Domaine de Boisbuchet in cooperation with Vitra Design Museum, the Georges Pompidou Centre and several international design institutions. This workshop will be held in Lessac, France from 24 to 30 July.
After a first contact with cork and the design of Rufo, one of the objects included in MATERIA CORK BY AMORIM, Pedrita designers (Pedro Ferreira and Rita João) will present a workshop on cork. Their participation is supported by CORTICEIRA AMORIM, which joins this initiative geared towards making cork and its versatile application potential known as well as promoting its use by the creative community.
Boisbuchet is considered to be an educational centre par excellence that fosters the emergence of new creative talent. Artists from around the world gather every year at Boisbuchet. Under the guidance of renowned designers they are encouraged to create and invent new objects and innovative solutions under the theme of sustainability.
Cork is a natural, renewable and recyclable raw material. Cork is extracted cyclically from the cork oak trees, which stay healthy throughout the process. Helga Josefs, a coordinator of the institution, says that the harvesting process fits perfectly in with the concept of Boisbuchet and she adds: "The many unique properties of cork make it an ideal material to be used in the design and architecture lab that is Boisbuchet. Cork's versatility affords students and other participants in summer workshops an opportunity to establish contacts and explore new ideas and concepts as regards both shape and processes. Whether you use cork for its intrinsic characteristics, as a composite material or simply because you want to take advantage of its all-natural beauty, every project is aimed at fully exploiting the potential of this renewable raw material and its industrial use."
As a result of the research carried out at the time of defining the MATERIA collection and the know-how acquired, Pedritas is now presenting the cork at Boisbuchet, a privileged platform for perceiving the intrinsic characteristics that make cork a very unique material, thus offering the participants an opportunity to rediscover its use in everyday objects.
Rita João and Pedro Ferreira state clearly: "We put cork firmly on the map as a material for the future ... it is natural and sustainable and has extraordinary physical properties. From pastoral pieces of art to space shuttle components, the characteristics of the cork allow its use in a number of unexpected applications that are waiting to be integrated into our daily lives. Boisbuchet is undoubtedly the best place to showcase and explore this so special Portuguese material."
Aware of the critical role that CORTICEIRA AMORIM plays in the research and development of cork as an industrial material they add: "CORTICEIRA AMORIM's commitment to research and development of new processing techniques inspired us to look more closely at this so familiar material in a different manner."
