The project aims to use stone found in illegal landfills to create furniture and design objects.
Using design as catalyst of change, the project use stone found in illegal landfills of the Natural Park to create design objects for daily use. This process takes place in an old industrial workshop located in the rural village of Moita do Poço where a new factory model was born: an experimentation laboratory focus on recovery and transformation raw materials for the production of exceptional furniture and design objects to demonstrate these discards are a valuable material.
Regional
Portugal
{Empty}
Mainly rural
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Samuel Alexandre Last name: Dos Santos Gender: Male Nationality: Portugal If relevant, please select your other nationality: Portugal Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rua da Moita do Poço Nº100 Town: Alcobaça Postal code: 2460-100 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 919 099 305 E-mail:sam.santos05@gmail.com
Using design as a catalyst for change, the project aims to
use semi-processed natural stone found in abandoned quarries and illegal
landfills in the Serra de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park, to create quality
furniture and added value design objects for everyday use, conceived by a
creative community of national and international designers.
This process will take place in an old industrial workshop located in the
rural village of Moita do Poço, surrounded by the Natural Park, where a
new factory model will be born: an experimentation laboratory dedicated
to the recovery and transformation of recovered raw materials for the
production of excellence collectible furniture and design objects.
The dumped and discarded raw material located at many areas in the
village and neighboring areas of Natural Park are the result of the
extractive and transforming process of the industry that settled here in the
60´s which generates a considerable amount of surpluses that do not
always correspond to “market standards” and leftovers from the transformative
process. This volume of discarded material was later dumped in
remote areas of the Natural Park. The project intends to demonstrate that
these discards are a valuable material that took millions of years to be
formed and can result in exclusive design products with meaning, with
great value and strong message, having the design a fundamental role of
analyzing the cycles and processes to challenge the consumption habits.
This is a unique and innovative project on the use of discarded natural
stone that involves not only creatives who seek to respond to the problem
through aesthetic and creative solutions, but also the village community,
former owners, artisans, shopkeepers, gallerists and final consumers.
Circular Economy
Sustainability
Design
Value
Social
Reduction of environmental and visual pollution: one of the main objectives will be the research and identification of the areas where discarded stone is found. These sites are mostly remote areas of the Natural Park such as abandoned quarries and illegal dumps in areas with abundant vegetation. In these areas, reusable raw materials will be collected and thus contribute to reducing the volume of illegal discharges, allowing the natural growth of vegetation and at the same time reducing visual pollution, making the landscape cleaner and greener.
Waste reduction: Today, the natural stone industry, despite the remarkable evolution, still does not look at the discarded raw material as a valuable material, with production leftovers reaching up to 40% of the material that is extracted. This project wants to demonstrate that this surplus is a useful and beautiful material allowing to create meaningful and useful design objects.
Fostering a responsible culture: The project will have a responsible and interested look over the secular industry by creating desirable objects that show the qualities of the raw material and highlight traces and marks of abandonment such as the vestiges of manual work, machining or natural elements existing in the discarded stones. These rescued stones will be ambassadors of a new virtuous and creative way of producing.
Implement a system: current economic models must be circular and more and more consumers seeks to know the origin and how the product was made. The project highlights the origins and qualities of the discarded raw material, where and how the stone was recovered and how this unique material is processed locally by artisans. These are the essential qualities
of the products that will be created, developed and promoted.
Go and search in the Natural Park of Serra de Aire e Candeeiros and collect discarded raw materials and turn it into beautiful meaningful design products and objects.
Preserve and highlight the features and motif why the stone was discarded. The final design product will preserve these characteristics showing that it is possible to alter the perspective and way as we see the final design product and change the way we distinguish discards and leftovers from valuable material that took millions of years to form.
By removing reusable stones and reducing the volume of illegal landfills, we are making the natural park greener, safer, cleaner and healthier. This action of the project allows the flora to grow again and the fauna to return to the territory that had been destroyed by these illegal discharges.
Educate those responsible for the natural stone sector that there is a profitable way to reuse waste by using design and creativity to change the way we define what is useful material from waste. This concept is applicable to the various industries that exploit natural resources.
Dramatically shorten the production process to the final product and reduce emissions and water and energy consumption. Today, the products we acquire have a long production line and several stages, which results in excessive consumption of natural resources. This project applies the "1km" concept from access to natural raw material to the final product and all stages happen in "1km" diameter working with local community to transform discarded stone into a final product ready to be marketed.
Educating the consumer changing the perspective of how we see "finished products". The final product doesn't have to be super finished, shiny and perfect. There is also beauty in irregular shapes of recovered stone and the project intends to creatively highlight these irregular shapes that give function to the design object.
The project was designed for rural implementation to work with local community of craftsman of different experts to prove that it´s possible to create added valuable design products and objects in areas people don´t expect to find something really creative.
Local rural community involvement: to find and identify artisans of various expertise who work with different materials (especially stone, but also wood, metals, cork) and create this network of artisans to be part of production process to create valuable design objects. This inclusive environment allows the these artisans participate in the creative process and "learn" that discarded material can create value and reduce waste through a new design system/approach.
Affordable design object: The final design product or object will be unique because each stone has unique and unrepeatable characteristics.
The final consumer is an active part in the project: through beautiful, eye-catch, unique and irreverent products and an honest marketing strategy the project intend to attract consumers who want to know the origin and history of the product, attracting consumers to be an active part of the project. By purchasing a responsible and sustainable product, the consumer knows that he helps removing raw material from the natural park that was illegally discarded and supporting the local community to preserve the craftmanship.
This project it´s only possible by envolving local comunity. Every person had an active role in the project.
Benefit of the local community: the actions of this project benefit the local community and the surrounding nature of the community because discarded waste (stone) is being collected, which is worked manually by local craftsmen who transform it into products and design objects. There is a gain for the fauna and flora and for the craftsmen who can thus continue and apply their technical and manual knowledge when shaping the stone, using antient methods. Otherwise these small workshops could disappear with economic and social damage to the village.
Benefit of the Natural Park: The project's actions seek to recover and clean the landscape from these illegal discharges and make it cleaner, safer and healthier and thus be enjoyed by the general population who seek to connect with nature.
Benefit of the consumer: The consumer has a gain of belonging to this cause. The acquisition of a sustainable and responsible design product creates an undeniable link between the project and the person who will make him/her pay attention not only to the next actions of the project but also to the awareness of the consumption and origin of the products in general and how consumption be able to give a direct benefit to nature.
1st level: locals and creative community find and collect discarted stones. The locals (especially the elderly) know the areas where stones have been discarded. Many of these people used to work in the industry and are familiar with remote access where ilegal landfils can be found. Some members of the village's elderly population worked in the industry and are aware of the places where stones were illegally discarded. Others, such as shepherds, through memory can help identify these locations.
2nd level: National and international designers join this cause and develop creative ideas to reuse discarded stones in beautiful objects and design products.
3rd level: local company Paviturque Lda and artisans helped to shaped the stone using ancient methods and manual tools to handle the recovered stone and turn it into design object.
4th level: local partner for the development of sustainable packaging with reused wood to ship and send the design products.
4th: make the product and design object accessible to the national and international population through partners (stores, galleries, markets, etc...). These partners will also be ambassadors of the method and the new way of designing furniture.
Knowledge of the natural park (territory): The project's actions in the territory of the natural park allow to obtain more knowledge of its characteristics and to be more attentive to its sensitive areas and to participate in its full preservation.
Design: the project's design is thought to highlight the characteristics of the stones that motivated its abandonment. Design is the tool and catalyst for the shift in perspective that defines what a final product is.
Craftmanship: The stones are handled and transformed by local artisans who apply their technical knowledge using hand tools that do not require water or excessive consumption of eletricity. These people are sources of knowledge of techniques that may disappear in the future if their knowledge is not applied through this project. They also use acenstral tools that no longer exist in today's market. These tools give unique shapes and textures that cannot be replicated on modern machines and these unique characteristics will give extra value to the final object.
Results: The results of the project were obtained through the sale of sustainable design pieces in interior architecture projects. Example 1: In a remote area of the natural park, a discarded granite block was found. This block was recovered and transformed into stone benches for a fashion concept store. This action allowed the removal of 1.5 tons of discarded stone from the natural park, which was transformed into design objects.
Example 2: In an illegal dump, surplus marble production was collected, which served as the basis for creating pots and vases that were sold to a hotel project in Girona, Spain.
These two projects were made by local craftsmen (stone and wood artisans) who thus had more work to which they applied their knowledge.
These two examples of the project's actions have raised the interest of interior designers and architects who want to purchase sustainable and responsible products in their interior projects.
1 - the stone used in the design product is not quarried or bought on purpose. Only existing stone found at illegal dump sites is used. This is already an innovative feature because in the design market, brands produce design pieces with blocks extracted on purpose.
2 - because each stone has different characteristics, the final product will always be different and unexpected even for similar functions. The customer buys the product with which he feels most connected and which is impossible to replicate.
3- the final product highlights the characteristics of the stone found (breaks, defects) which already distinguishes us from other brands that present super complex products and with long production periods.
4- the sustainable and responsible final product is sold with all the information about the area where the stone was recovered. The product will have information about the coordinates of the area where the stone was collected and the consumer will be able to see that place through the internet.
5- The final design product is promoted in a simple, direct and honest marketing, where it is possible to see the place where the stone was collected and meet the artisans who shaped it. Every final product executed means one less stone lost in the natural park and this has a direct and measurable effect. It's not opaque mainstream "green" marketing with just pretty words. Consumers can see the actions prior to the final object.
6 - the design approach is also innovative. The mainstream market focuses on beautiful design first before executing the object. The project does the opposite: it is based on the characteristics of the recovered stones that the final object is made.
Through a reduced and geographically limited ecosystem, the project transforms discarded natural stone into design products, with an empowered communicative value that makes it more desirable and exclusive.
It is the result of collaboration between designers and the local community, which includes artisans specialized in working with raw materials and former owners of quarries that are now abandoned.
Together, a new creative system will be born that will shorten the production process that goes from recover of raw materials to the final product.
0 – Explore the local territory in order to find, identify and collect the discarded semi-processed natural stone from illegal landfils to abandoned quarries.
1 – Collect and analyse the collected stone like the date of discard (by analysing of the color, shape, size, handmade and natural marks and traces, it is possible to find the year when the stone was discarded), location of extraction (the origin of the stone and less than 1km away from the Factory, it´s possible to find several types of national and international stones and reusing these, we are drastically reducing the ecological footprint instead of extracting, buy or importing them for a specific project), typology and functionalities (what new functionalities these stones can gain in their new use).
2 – Design Briefing, research and development of production processes with direct collaboration between designers and local artisans.
3 – Production of furniture and design objects from waste collected from natural stone and its optimization.
4 – Sale of the final product directly to stores, galleries or end customers stores.
5 – Honest and effective communication that explains the entire circular production
process and the local actors involved.
6 - Promotion of the project, objectives and sustainable results achieved.
The project seeks to explore concrete solutions on how to look at waste and how it turn into a desirable design product that can be used in everyday life. This approach is in line with the current behavior of design consumers who are increasingly looking for design products with a positive impact on the environment and society.
This result (discarded raw material that becomes furniture and premium decorative design objects) will be available for sale online and in physical stores and galleries.
The project's website and social media will be the platform to promote eco-responsibility and traceability of the design object and raise awareness of consumer culture.
The solution will be implemented in the rural village of Moita do Poço and if the project is successful, it can be replicated in other locations in Portugal or abroad and with other materials such as waste from construction materials, wood, iron or glass.
Based on a reduced and geographically limited ecosystem in the rural location, this project can present concrete solutions on how to reuse the natural raw material through the design, which is a material of great value, all of it. The solution implemented in this project focused specifically on discarded natural stone as it is located in a region with many factories and quarries that do not properly treat their waste, which ends up being discarded in very sensitive environmental areas that affect the fauna, flora and rural communities located in the natural park of Serra de Aire e Candeeiros, but this "recipe" can be implemented in other rural or urban regions that face the same problems with local industries. Design can give the answer on how we should treat natural raw materials, valuing its waste through design objects with a sustainability message that people will want to be part of.
