OUTSIDE-IN - Alessandro Ciffo, SKIN by Sargomma SB, Daria Biryukova
Country: Italy
THE DOOR
Art and Collectible Design
In continuity with Alessandro Ciffo’s mission, who has been creating silicone artifacts for about 25
years exploring the technical and emotional features of this material, the need arose to increase its
value in the field of sustainability. Experimenting with the regeneration of waste from his own studio
brought him new challenges and, as a consequence, new creative juice, original textures, unexplored
chromatic solutions and fresh emotional states. With this new mindset Alessandro Ciffo met
Sargomma Srl SB, a manufacturing company specialized in the design, development and production
of rubber components, that recently became a Benefit Company increasing its commitment to
environmental and social sustainability. From the collaboration between Sargomma and Alessandro
Ciffo and from the union of art and industry, manufacturing expertise and creativity, design and
sustainability, the SKIN project was born, aiming at creating repurposed silicone coverings for the
interior & exterior design sector. In 2021 SKIN went international and participated at Downtown
Design in Dubai and at Ro Plastic Prize. In 2022 the collaboration expanded further and the SKIN team
met Daria Biryukova, an Austria-based designer fascinated by experimenting with waste and
secondary raw materials. This was the start of the international WORTH partnership project, that set
an even more ambitious step contributing to the the New European Bauhaus objectives of creating a
Beautiful, Sustainable and Inclusive future in all areas of society. Together, they are implementing the
use of natural pigments in a blend of regenerated silicone, obtained through the mix of grinded
industrial waste and virgin material. The final aim is to use this material to develop the functional
prototype of a modular system suitable for different scenarios (e.g. retail, office, hospitality, kids’
environment). The approach used in this project is deeply technical. Indeed, part of the collaboration
is devoted to the development of an optimized production process in order to reduce costs, enabling
the possibility of making art and design more accessible and inclusive. This collaboration and its basic
principles led to the project here presented. In particular, “THE DOOR” is a metal painted door
structure (1900mm x 500mm x 2650mm) partially covered with magnetic hand-made cubes of
regenerated silicone (50% in weight of re-used silicone) in different colours and dimensions. The
pigments are all natural and waste-based, coherently to the palette developed during these months of
joint work.
