A Symbiosis Between Vegetation and Furnishings

Designer Gionato Gatto’s assortment, Coloniae, is a collection of objects designed like dwellings inside a colony, their constructions conceived to work together symbiotically with vegetation. 

The objects are in all probability greatest fitted to air vegetation (Tillandsia) as they don’t seem to include vessels for both soil or water, however the concept is noteworthy.

A group of variously formed vases and a desk, Colonaie hosts the vegetation, permitting the plant roots and leaves to intertwine themselves with the help construction to turn into a single full unit. The desk is harking back to French designer Frédéric Malphettes’s Floor which does double obligation as each an indoor-outdoor modular desk system and a planter, or Norwegian designer Philipp von Hase’s seed formed “Plantable” a  desk with an built-in planter.

Unveiled at Milan Design Week 2022, Colonaie is a part of the design collective JCP Universe’s Various Lifeforms collection, whose idea is to create artifacts that “turn into life types of a system that creates relationships between its creators, customers and the surroundings itself.”

Like Hong Kong designer Francois Hurtaud’s mixture aquaponic planter system and lightweight fixture, a contemporary piece of indoor furnishings, the Colonaie items aren’t merely containers for vegetation however somewhat objects that exist symbiotically with them.

Two vase designs, Munzo and Loum, and a small aspect desk are made from perforated aluminum sheets with matt copper, matt bronze, or matt silver ending. The designs are made to order on JCP Universe’s website.

Photographs through JCP Universe.