BRICCOLE & POLE-TIPS

New life given by design and craftsmanship

The project for the re-use of wooden poles recovered in the Lagoon started in 2011 from an intervention of rehabilitation/restructuring of a historical building on La Salina di San Felice island in the Northern Lagoon in which the widespread use of wood recovered from the old briccole (dolphins, groups of wooden poles characteristic to the Venice Lagoon) turned out to be so gratifying and original that it was tempting to replicate this idea in other contexts.

The opportunity arose at the end of 2018, when huge quantities of waste were deposited along the banks and canals of the Lagoon, uprooted by the tides and headwinds. Their removal, in the course of three intense months of voluntary work, brought to shore innumerable quantities of wood detached from the lagoon margins, characterised by unusual shapes carved by erosion and stunning colours with unique textures.

The majority of lagoon poles was used to create beams, as well as solid and plywood boards for furniture and furnishing components. The obvious question was how to use the so-called ‘pole tips’: those remnants of wooden poles originally driven into the banks to contain shores and sandbanks, which as a result of shipworm attacks and tidal erosion are reduced to hourglass-shaped truncated conical structures. It is common for the upper part of these to break off, and they often end up either deposited along the shores or floating, semi-submerged, in the Lagoon waters.

Hence the idea of recovering and reusing the pile cones after a long process that consists of desiccating, sanitising and turning the wood, and then to assemble them using traditional craftsmanship systems, which change their appearance and transform them into unique and original pieces of furniture that respect and reflect their marshy origin.

With the intention of enhancing their truncated cone shape and strengthening their structure, the wooden pieces were collected in groups of 2 or 3, which later gave life to stools, tables, desks and small furnishing complements of the PDP (Punte di Palo – Pole Tips) line.

The ‘Pole Tips” project was supported by the excellent craftsmanship of turning shop Torneria Legno Ghelfo Zeffirino, founded in 1910, and by the carpenters Falegnameria F.lli Turazza, which specialises in traditional workmanship, using historical numerical control machines dating back to the 1970s.