Luxe of waste: Eggshell transforms into designer tile at Milan Design Week

This Fuorisalone, THE BARN, an unconventional outdoor installation at Milan’s iconic Gallery Rossana Orlandi, sets the scene for the launch of Nature Squared’s ingenious new CArrelé collection of multi-purpose tiles using over 150,000 eggshells sourced from food waste and Pastorale woven textiles from palm fibres. Since its foundation in 2001, Nature Squared has pioneered the use of eco-friendly and responsibly sourced sustainable natural materials. The brand champion the use of heritage artisan skills and innovative technical solutions to create exquisite handmade design surfaces for leading architects and designers. This year they return to Milan Design Week at Rossana Orlandi with their new Chief Material Innovator, the British-Chinese textile designer and weaver Elaine Yan Ling Ng’s ground-breaking CArrelé collection, created with Nature Squared’s research and development team.

In THE BARN’s modernist yet playful interior, the beauty and strength of Nature Squared’s new products are showcased. The CArrelé tiles deck the walls, floors, and elegant columns while the textiles are presented as screens and suspended works of art.

CArrelé:

Nature Squared have a history of working with eggshell, having created numerous bespoke eggshell finishes for their clients in the past. Ng’s vision and innovation have led to the development of an exciting, new composite which extends the shelf life of otherwise discarded eggshells by crushing the shells and applying natural dye. This led to the creation of CArrelé: the world’s first handmade eco-friendly wall tiles made of eggshell. “Although we tend to associate [eggshells] with fragility, [they] are actually very strong, naturally UV-resistant...the ethereal chalk- white colour that we have sourced sustainably absorbs natural colours in fascinating ways, making it a wonderful building material,” says Ng.

CArrelé comes in a variety of square, rectangular and triangular shapes and in three colour families. Naturel has toasted earthy tones ranging from cream to dark toast brown, while Coloré tiles feature hues achieved with indigo, chlorophyllin and madder. Harlequin tones are obtained through a combination of natural dying and toasting. The flexibility of the concept is illustrated with 3D hand-moulded tiles.

Also in THE BARN is a luxurious hand-woven combination of abaca palm fibre, with piña and lurex added to create structural strength to the weave. Prized throughout Asia for its mechanical strength, natural UV resistance and resistance to saltwater, abaca has a pure shine that looks silken in sunlight or when illuminated. Ideal as an artwork, wall hanging, screen, lampshade or sliding door, Pastorale weaves come in a 0.5m and 1m width and is sold by the metre.

THE BARN:

THE BARN’s unusual modernist architecture pays tribute to one of Europe’s oldest timber-framed buildings, Coggeshall Grange Barn built in the 13th century. Created by Elaine Yan Ling Ng for Nature Squared, the barn hosts The Window – an artwork made of traditional eggshell inlay – and a collection of hand-woven abaca textiles sandwiched with egg composite mini tiles and traditional eggshell inlay, suspended from timber rafters in the courtyard. The entire floor and two sets of newly created steps leading to THE BARN are covered with triangular and rectangular baked eggshell CArrelé floor tiles, highlighted with red madder CArrelé tiles. Four chicken coop-inspired, self-standing cabinets made of maple wood and Pastorale textiles display an assortment of accessories including moulded eggshell pieces, bowls, cups, lampshades, and a material swatch.