Refresh, Reuse

Italian designer Guido Garotti approaches furniture design as an exercise in social anthropology. “When I design, I study shapes, materials and manufacturing in order to encourage a psychological symbiosis between person and object,” Garotti says. His most recent project is “Ginko, Akiko, Keiko,” which he showed in Milan. “I was asked to rethink an old soft polyurethane lounge chair with the aim of reusing its dismissed mold and obtaining a different, fresh and appealing product.” He made three new designs, as a reinterpretation of the older chair, using the same mold.

Garotti received a master’s degree in furniture design from the Sheffield Institute of Arts in the UK. “My designs aim to relate to current times while promoting cultural heritage. The objects I design intend to fascinate the viewer through a contemporary look while favoring traditional materials, promoting local craftsmanship and utilizing local imagery and cultural references,” Garotti said. “I tend to work with natural materials for their narrative potential and aging properties.”

For an upcoming project he moved back to his birthplace in Italy looking for the most skilled craftsmanship for a partnership with the brand “Life Given A Shape.” The first set of chairs from this project will be introduced at the TENT exhibition during the London Design Festival in September. (Guido Garotti)