Nature has long inspired design, but rarely does it make a mark as indelible as this. With the debut of the IMPRINT Collection at Rossana Orlandi Gallery during Milan Design Week 2025, Italian design studio Alcarol invites the forest floor into the world of contemporary furniture. Here, nature isn’t just inspiration; it’s an agent of change. Through an experimental oxidation process, leaves and undergrowth fragments are immortalized onto metal, transforming coffee tables and side tables into living canvases of decay, memory, and regeneration.
Because of the delicate nature of the organic materials, the making of each piece in the IMPRINT Collection is a careful, deliberate process. In the natural world, plants are often rich in tannins – natural compounds that react with metal to form oxides and surface patinas. To recreate this reaction at an accelerated pace, Alcarol immerses leaves and fragments of underwood plants in tannin-based solutions and other oxidizing substances, transferring them directly onto polished copper surfaces. As the tannins react, oxidation blooms across the metal, imprinting delicate textures and unpredictable patinas that no two pieces share. The shape and grain of the leaves forever mark the surface, capturing nature’s transformative power in each unique piece.
Continuing the conversation between nature and material, each table is shaped to echo the prismatic structures of metallic minerals, their irregular silhouettes evoking forms found deep within the earth. On the forest floor, camouflaged by the pattern of leaves, the tables might appear as if they’ve weathered there for years.
The IMPRINT Collection further expands on Alcarol’s concept of “memory of material,” illuminating how nature’s fleeting moments can be preserved through craft. While there’s always an end goal in design, Alcarol invites us to savor transformation – the quiet unfolding of materials over time.
To learn more about the IMPRINT Collection by Alcarol, visit alcarol.com.
Photography courtesy of Alcarol.
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