Carpet Matter Block Chair By Riccardo Cenedella

Carpet matter block chair by Riccardo Cenedella.Dimensions: 45 x 45 x H 55 cm.Materials: Waste Synthetic carpet, wood structure.I am Riccardo Cenedella I graduated in Product Design from Politecnico di Torino in 2016 and straight after my graduation I started to work for an art design studio in Turin. There I started to develop my passion for making things with my hands and became confident with using the most common tools. However, while I was in the process of creating, I started to feel guilty about making objects only to satisfy my pleasure but without a specific purpose, and be part of the conventional linear model of take-make-discard and the current approach to materiality and objects. For this reason, in 2019, I decided to study MA Material Futures at Central Saint Martins in London. Studying there I came across the theory of Charles Levi-Strauss who described the figure of the bricoleur as the one who always makes with "whatever is at hand", after research into this topic I find out that for me this means to set the limit of my practice to the use of only waste materials.Inspiration:The Carpet Matter collection is a great representation of my practice: as an alchemist, through ingenuity, persistence and hands-on experimentation, a useless material is transformed into design artefacts.While I was researching about what waste material I wanted to use for my final year project, I bumped into some carpet waste during a walk around my neighbourhood. This material grabbed my attention and when I discovered that the vast majority of carpet is made with thermoplastic materials I decided to experiment treating it as a common plastic. Through hands-on experimentation with synthetic materials, I developed a technique that allows me to reshape and repurpose this material for the creation of new design artefacts, avoiding carpet from ending up in dumpsites.