Rooted in the philosophy of re-use, the Bricola Collection celebrates the silent beauty of time — an aesthetic of endurance, erosion, and transformation.
Each piece originates from the historic oak poles that have long stood as sentinels in the Venetian Lagoon, guiding boats and tides, absorbing for decades the slow rhythms of salt, water, and wind.
During their immersion, these timbers are gently sculpted by Teredo Navalis — tiny marine organisms that leave delicate constellations of circular traces across the surface. Their patient work consumes the outer layers, yet preserves the living heart of the wood, revealing a profound dialogue between fragility and resilience, decay and rebirth.
When the lagoon’s elements finally demand their renewal, the poles — imbued with history and life — are retrieved and entrusted to alcarol. The studio has immersed itself in the waters of Venice to study this extraordinary habitat, where nature and time act as the most authentic designers.
The project evokes a submerged cross-section of the Venetian Lagoon — a poetic glimpse beneath the surface — aiming to transcend ordinary perception. Through a patented process, alcarol fills only the voids within the wood with a transparent resin that embodies the water itself: a liquid memory that captures light, reflections, and the suspended breath of underwater air bubbles.
In this way, the resin does not merely preserve — it recreates the presence of water, restoring the timber to its original environment and revealing its hidden anatomy as if still submerged.
By sealing the cavities left by the shipworms, alcarol grants new purpose to what would otherwise be lost — a gesture both technical and poetic, freezing time like still water, at the fragile threshold between erosion and rebirth.
Venice itself rests upon thousands of such wooden foundations, driven deep into the clay and sand of the caranto layer. Each design piece thus becomes a tribute to this silent, millennial struggle beneath the waves — where water, salt, and life have long conspired to sculpt the city’s soul.
The outer surface of every Bricola element is left deliberately untouched, preserving the tactile memory of its Venetian sojourn. Each recovered timber is meticulously washed, cleaned, dried, and disinfected, honouring its authenticity without erasing its past.
After years of experimentation, alcarol perfected the union of solid Bricola wood and transparent resin — two opposing yet inseparable elements. Their encounter reveals an equilibrium of opposites: the warmth and matte porosity of aged wood alongside the clarity, fluidity, and luminous depth of resin — a solid water that flows through time.
Together they embody the essence of the Bricola Collection — where matter becomes memory, water becomes light, and memory becomes form.
