aulets

"RETHINK DESIGN, RETHINK PROCESSES"

Client: Pollença City Council

Architecture: Aulets Arquitectes

Exhibition assembly: Amarar Tramuntana SL

Artisans: Amarar, Llanatura, Paumes i Brins, Vicens Fabrics, 8 Ullos, Fusteart Creations and Bajoket.

Collaborators: Joan Martí Morro and Alexandre Martínez

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSE HEVIA + AULETS

The exhibition RETHINK DESIGN / RETHINK PROCESSES aimed to showcase the process of building furniture with wood from Mallorca while simultaneously caring for our ecosystems. In parallel, furniture designed and constructed by Amarar in collaboration with other artisans was also displayed.

From the second half of the 20th century, a slow process of business delocalization began, seeking places where extraction and labor were more economical, resulting in externalities in ecosystems and workers' rights. In the case of Mallorca, the disappearance of value chains in the use of wood, stone, and ceramics has led the territory towards a culture of abandonment, both in terms of the land and technical knowledge. In the case of wood, Mallorca currently imports 70,000 tons of wood per year, even though 95% of the island's forests are abandoned. What can we do?

The exhibition is an event divided into three scenes:

The first scene is a pile of stacked trees. These trunks come from a property in Pollença that was affected by the Juliette storm in February 2023 (https://www.ultimahora.es/noticias/part-forana/2023/03/14/1899203/mallorca-millones-arboles-danados-por-borrasca-juliette.html). This storm affected over a million trees, mainly in the Serra de Tramuntana in Mallorca. Part of the furniture in the exhibition has been constructed from the trunks fallen due to Juliette.

The second scene is a trough built with marés stone, with dry joints, inside which water has been added to soak pine wood for a month to observe the soaking process of the wood in water. The process of soaking the trunks improves the quality and durability of the wood.

The third scene is a pine wood dryer using slats sawn directly from the trunk. 13 m3 of pine wood were used to construct 12 pillars from 2.1-meter slats (2.1 is the meter size used by Mallorca foresters, which is the width of trucks transporting logs to sawmills). These pillars, measuring 1.2x1.2m in a cross shape, form a grid of six rooms, 3.6 x 3.6 m, inside which six interiors were displayed with furniture built with wood, wool, straw, leather, and fabric.

To build this structure, 950 slats of 8 x 4 x 210 cm were used, separated by 950 slats of 8 x 4 x 30 cm, held together with 84 slings. This system allows for disassembly, installation, and storage of the wood to continue its drying process and be used to build furniture for the next Craft Fair of Pollença in 2024.

The entire process aims to care for our forests and rebuild the value chain to create furniture from Mallorca wood.