Real Non-Real — Formosa Coat Rack with 'Dolina' Marble Base

'Dolina' do·lì·na - Italian for 'sinkhole'.

The Formosa (Italian meaning 'curvy') Coat Rack is a contemporary, free-standing coat rack, with a single shelf and a marble base.  

For By/Product, 2022 Real Non-Real's Formosa Coat Rack is product born of an ongoing exploration into the re-purposing of the sink cut-outs which are leftover from marble bench-tops. This project is motivated by research into the environmental impact of current marble mining practices and the interior design market that drives it.

In today's interior design world, marble is an increasingly beloved material, a trademark of luxury and style. However, this exponential growth in popularity is coming at a cost. Many quarries have already been depleted and are being mined even deeper, causing irreversible damage to the environment. Recent studies are showing an increasing link between quarries and 'engineered sinkhole' occurrences, which is caused by manmade erosion to limestone. Marble itself is a metamorphic rock produced from limestone, by pressure and heat in the earth's crust due to a geological process called recrystallisation. And although this process is 'self-replenishing', it takes millions of years for the process to occur.

Utilising water jet cutting, a sustainable, precise cutting method that generates little waste, smaller shapes are cut from the sink cut-outs and stacked in various configurations to create a base for the Formosa coat rack. This is the first iteration of exploring potential ways to use this finite material.

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Real Non-Real is a Naarm/Melbourne based furniture project run by multidisciplinary designer Brigitte Ower-Buccianti. Real Non-Real is interested in the performance, rituals, and gestures of the everyday. Taking a research-based approach to design by looking at the inherent narrative of furniture, the poetics of daily life and the spatial relationship between objects and the body, RNR aims to challenge the current notions of traditional furniture.

Real Non-Real has exhibited across Melbourne including Craft Contemporary 2021, Future Proof for Melbourne Design Week, 2021 and By/Product at Craft, 2022. Owers-Buccianti studied a Bachelor of Interior Design (Honours).

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By/Product is a new product series launching at Craft Victoria. A selected group of Australian makers and designers joined the challenge of repurposing/reusing discarded materials to produce a new line of handmade products. 

The aim of the series is to highlight the value of raw materials and to recognise the threat of material scarcity on designers, artists and makers, and associated impacts on their artistic and commercial outcomes. Through this process, designers and makers work to rebuild structure, redefine aesthetic appeal and reinstate value in otherwise discarded materials.  

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Material: hand-bent chrome, powder coat, marble off-cuts

Dimensions: Contact a Craft consultant shop@craft.org.au for more information 

Please note: This is made to order on an 8 week lead time. First round of orders closes 29th March 2022.