13RiCrea is a company based in Monferrato, Italy, that has been working in the field of material recycling and creative reuse since 2007. In this area of Piedmont we create furnishing objects and impromptu, playful or fashionable creations, recycling the leftover materials from industrial production that would otherwise have to be disposed of.
The idea came to me in Serralunga di Crea, in Monferrato, where I live and work as a craftswoman. Every day I would see containers full of clean materials passing by on their way to landfills. As a craftswoman, I was already producing objects, and this gave rise to the desire and the idea of recovering those materials and not just stopping at the aesthetics of a product.
In 2007, we were a group of three women: a photographer, a surveyor and myself, a team completely dedicated to the reinterpretation of materials destined for disuse, abandonment and waste, and after thirteen meetings (hence the name of the brand) between us, 13RiCrea was founded.
With a view to recycling materials, what do you start from, do you start from their availability or do you go looking for them directly or is there a "network" of companies that offer their scrap and production waste?
The starting point is the off-cuts or interesting leftovers from company productions. We recover them through contacts with companies willing to offer secondary raw materials and we study possible designs with what we find... But we have to like them! As far as I know, there is no network, I usually find them by word of mouth, but it has happened that some 'enlightened' people have offered me their production leftovers.
What areas do these leftovers come from?
For the outdoor line we use PVC from the production waste of gazebos, tensile structures, truck tarpaulins and the production of outboard inflatable boats, rafts etc...
What is the starting point for the design of a product or a piece of furniture?
It arises spontaneously. The starting point is the size of the materials. We aim to recycle and have fun without ever forgetting the usefulness and final function of a product, adding a pinch of irony, trying to use waste material as much as possible
Angela, you have created a female brand, was it a conscious choice or a coincidence of things?
It was a combination of both. Working with third party waste as raw material was a process that no one did at the time, but it seemed practical, beautiful and contained "value". I shared the idea with my friends and we decided to take the opportunity to combine the useful with the amusing, recovering materials such as felt, PVC, nautical cloth. The idea was to complete the design concept by including leftover materials in the processing that, instead of being disposed of, are converted into new objects, through the so-called Upcycling.
Among your products, the one that makes me smile the most is the sheep, the sheep is curious, it evokes a world - the animal world - far away from urban life, why did you make an animal when you have always produced mainly furnishing and decorative elements?
The sheep is a fun seat, it is a pouf, made of various materials. The supporting structure is a tank covered and camouflaged with various materials, polycarbonate to give it a suitable shape, polyurethane to insert the fleece and we use felt for the snout.
SofaGreen
Livesbag That's the name of the double-face bag, . D in fact it's a fashion product, the design is minimal, where did it come from?
It came from an image I saw on the Internet, then I developed it in detail to adapt it to my ideas. The first ones were created from a tandem that then broke up, it happens!
An interesting detail is that in order to recover more scraps, the bag has become double, that is, a reversible bag, with various colours and textures according to the productions and recoveries available at the time of production.
It is made of waterproof material and designed to make it impossible for foreign hands to accessi or the inside the bag, it is in fact tear-proof. It is a roll-up bag and is called 3LIVESBAG. A bag that has three screws derived from the recycled material and its two faces, being reversible it has two possibilities of use. It is available in 3 sizes and in many colours and finishes.
Sustainability, waste, reuse: what are the other key words to remember to raise awareness of sustainability?
Saving, attention, care, sensitivity, courage and willingness to change, even in small everyday gestures. All the more so in design and production.
Do you have a thought for our planet and a suggestion for everyone, young and old?
If you want to change the world, start by cleaning up your garden...
Syncropedia is addressed to architects, designers and planners, do you have something to tell them about the choice of materials?
What we already know, research the use of environmentally friendly materials and not waste in every sense, this philosophy has become a luxury in our time, the REAL luxury...
It is important to understand that realities like 13-Ricrea show how it is possible to live an industrial symbiosis between companies and create winning situations between companies. On the one hand, those who offer "secondary raw materials" will have a positive return on their image and lower their disposal costs; on the other hand, those who process them and design environmentally friendly products will broaden the target of buyers, reaching a public that is sensitive to environmental issues, even though the concept of the "beauty" of the product is always very important to us.
What have you discovered in all these years of research?
Not to waste, in all senses, this philosophy becomes in our time A LUXURY, the REAL luxury...I have discovered that companies and artisans produce a lot of waste of which nothing is known...And it is difficult to enter their world....Apart from a few enlightened.
Finally, do you have a book to suggest?
"Beauty will save the world, Twenty stories of Eco-Creative women for a sustainable future.Navarra publisher. Along with wonderful women, you can see me on page 20 under: "Angela dreams by recreating".
