The Challenge
Design an industrial object that goes beyond aesthetics, embedding a genuine sustainability philosophy into its very materiality. The challenge was to create something visually evocative and emotionally resonant while demonstrating that discarded materials can become the foundation of meaningful, considered design.
The Approach
The concept originated from the idea of emerging lands — surfaces that move, divide, and transform. In collaboration with Keep Life, I developed a backflow incense holder using an innovative material derived from nutshell waste. Every formal and material decision was guided by the tension between the raw, earthy quality of the recycled material and the fluid, ethereal nature of the smoke it would produce.
The Solution
The result is Kiri — an object that transforms a discarded material into a landscape. The backflow system guides smoke downward, creating the illusion of mist, sea, and clouds: ever-changing, impossible to replicate, in constant transformation. A piece that proves design's power to give new life to what would otherwise be thrown away, exhibited at the Fuori Salone 2022.
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