OXILOSE

Lead Designers Alice Colombo

Entry Description

OXILOSE is a collection of light sculptures that reimagines what a lamp can be. More than functional objects, these lamps are evolving stories about how we perceive and create with materials. Light becomes the medium through which the dialogue between organic and inorganic matter is revealed, turning illumination into material storytelling.
At its core, OXILOSE explores the spontaneous aesthetic interactions between living matter, bacterial cellulose (grown through tea fermentation) and death matter, metals, through the process of oxidation. This oxidation becomes a new dye method, producing unpredictable chromatic shades, embracing uncertainty and chance over precision and control. The designer becomes a facilitator, allowing the material to speak for itself.
In the light structures, oxidised cellulose sheets, both translucent and magnetic (thanks to the iron properties), attach to minimal steel frames with neodymium magnets. These “filters” can be detached, rearranged, and recombined, creating a lamp that continuously evolves along with the material. When illuminated, the oxidised cellulose reveals the chromatic subtlety of its transformation, evoking lunar atmospheres and eclipses where shadow unveils light.
What emerges is a new aesthetic language rooted in material agency, transformation, and co-creation.

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability is one of the cornerstones of Oxilose: the project was born from the reuse of bacterial cellulose, often considered a waste from fermentation, especially of kombucha producers, who are given new life as an aesthetic and functional material. At the same time, metal residues from steel production are used. This union of materials thus extends the life cycle of industrial by-products, an unprecedented dialogue between organic and inorganic matter. The whole process is deliberately low-tech: it is based on natural oxidations, air drying and DIY cultivations, with reduced energy expenditure. Through circular practices, low-impact production and enhancement of transformation as an aesthetic language, Oxilose reduces its environmental footprint and proposes a new sustainable design model, founded on the agency of materials and the regeneration of resources.