“An object, after all, is what makes infinity private.”
Iosif Brodskij, Watermark
The Bricola Collection represents the synthesis of the fundamental alcarol's idea of environmental cross-section and reuse of organic materials. The project gives a new life to the wooden poles used in the canals of Venice, normally known as Bricole. During their long stay in the Venice Lagoon, these Oak logs are carved by water, salt and shipworms, that leaves traces of their passing on the wooden surface, leaving intact the hardwood’s inner core. The assiduous labour of the elements necessitates the replacement and scrapping of the poles, providing an organic material that has traversed by life.
This alcarol project engages with the idea of underwater cross-section of this extraordinary habitat, with the aim to transcend its ordinary perception. Through a patented elaborate process, alcarol fills with an innovative transparent resin only the empty spaces of the wood, just as lagoon water did, capturing the underwater air bubbles that bring the wood back to the original look and conditions
By filling the gaps left by shipworms with resin, alcarol achieves a new functionality with the poetic choice to bring the material beneath the water’s surface, freezing time at the end of its cycle and giving it a new life before it goes to waste. The Bricole’s external surface is left intentionally intact, as reminder of the Venetian sojourn of this characteristic recovered timber.
The alcarol‘s patented process has allowed to propose these unique pieces, preserving the natural wood surface which is not covered by resin on the section planes, according to the environmental cross-section generative concept.
Solid Bricola wood and transparent polished resin differ from one another at touch and sight and together they give essential characteristics: warmth and matt porosity from natural wood, elegance and evocative transparency from the resin.
