Barrique, the third life of wood

This  year’s edition of the internationally known Salone del Mobile in Milan  features a design project by San Patrignano, the largest residential treatment center in Europe.

 “Barrique, the third life of wood ” (barrique meaning barrell) is both a social and eco-friendly  project.

30 internationally-known designers and architects have designed wooden objects using the oak wood of the barrels of the Community. These design objects have been built by around 200 young guests of the community of San Patrignano.

Barrique has been realized  thanks to the partnership between the San Patrignano Community and Maurizio and Davide Riva and the support of Federvini, FederlegnoArredo and Cosmit.

Among the guests at the opening of the exhibition, that took place on 17 April 2012, there were some of the young people of San Patrignano, Letizia Moratti who, together with Gianmarco Moratti, is a long-standing friend of the community, and some of the designers involved in the project.

All the objects have been realized in the carpentry and wrought iron workshops of the Community. San Patrignano hosts around 1300 young people recovering from drug addiction and social exclusion through projects including high level professional training, like viticulture and winemaking. The Community produces more than 600,000 bottles of premium wine per year, that is aged in French oak casks, which are discarded after 3 years.

The Barrique project gives new life to the barrels, but also to the young people who built the objects. As Marco Stefanini, head of the carpentry workshop, highlights: “These 200 young carpenters  were very impressed to see thirty internationally known designers and architects come in person to the Community with a very spontaneous attitude, really wanting to know the community. The  designers  worked at their projects together with the young people, so it was an exceptional experience for them. Young people also had the important opportunity to learn the carpentry business”.

The eco-friendly aspect of the Barrique project perfectly fits in the principle of respect on which the Community is based: respect for the environment and, first of all, for people.

The 30 design objects will be exhibited at Milan’s Salone del Mobile until 22 April and will be sold through San Patrignano selling network  at affordable prices because  what is important is the philosophy behind the object, not the business.

Here below the names of the architects and designers who participated to the Barrique project:

Riccardo Arbizzoni, Claudio Bellini, Mario Botta, Giuliano Cappelletti, Luisa Castiglioni, Pierluigi Cerri, Aldo Cibic, Antonio Citterio, Carlo Colombo, Valerio Cometti, Michele De Lucchi, Terry Dwan, Erasmo Figini, Elio Fiorucci, Giuseppe Leida, Gualtiero Marchesi, Alberto Meda, Alessandro Mendini, Angela Missoni, Paolo Nava, Franco e Matteo Origoni, Alessandro Pedron, Paolo Pininfarina, Karim Rashid, Maurizio e Davide Riva, Alejandro Ruiz, Marc Sadler, Luca Scacchetti, Aldo Spinelli, Matteo Thun, San Patrignano.

To read more about the project: http://www.sanpatrignano.org/?q=en/barrique_projects

On Vita Europe’s facebook page you can find pictures of the Barrique design project.