Nontalo | Eneris Collective

Name of the submitted project or idea (in English or both English and your language)

Nontalo
URL of a video introducing the work（under 5 minutes）

https://vimeo.com/882208535
Detailed explanation of the submitted project or idea (in English or both English and your language)

Irene Segarra and Irene Martínez, collaborating as the Eneris Collective, worked on a project called Nontalo, a seating design that emphasizes play, spontaneity, and sustainability. They were invited by NaifactoryLAB to experiment with Reolivar, a biocomposite, and explore new applications for it.
Both are industrial design engineers specialising in sustainable materials, working together to
explore new ways of designing with a contemporary, sustainable and inclusive style. Irene
Segarra from Barcelona and Irene Martínez from Cádiz met in September 2021 in Barcelona,
when they both started collaborating a biomaterials research studio located in Barcelona.

This stool is made from a robust and durable material that is also 100% compostable. It's Reolivar, a biomaterial crafted from olive pits and natural ingredients developed by Naifactory LAB. This waste is put to good use, giving rise to a new natural wood that is easy to shape without the need to cut down trees to obtain it. The waste becomes valuable.
Typically, projects using this material were based on intersecting planes. Eneris sought to push boundaries by exploring alternatives that didn't rely on conventional approaches. Over a period of four months, they delved into the potential, advantages, and limitations of this new material. The goal was to create a structure that departed from the traditional stool shape with legs and a seat while retaining its function. To shape their proposal, they started with a set of words and concepts defining the project's intention.

Their project, Nontalo, has gained recognition and exposure in various international design publications, including Dezeen, Domus, Frame, Ideat, and Stir, and so forth.
Furthermore, their work has been featured at events such as Grand Design Live London, the Roca London Gallery, and Milan Design Week. Notably, they received the third prize in the international GuiltlessPlastic awards by Rossana Orlandi for their sustainable and educational design efforts
How does your work address the 3 P’s (for Planet, for People, for Profit) for Sustainability?

Planet:
We use a 100% biodegradable and compostable material made from olive pits, a byproduct of the olive oil industry. Spain is one of the world's leading olive oil producers, and as a result, it generates waste that has traditionally been used only as solid fuel for heating. Reolivar, the material, opens the door to a new use for this biomaterial with mechanical properties similar to wood, and its visual and sensory characteristics also resemble wood. After all, it's another type of wood, without the need to cut down forests to obtain it. Waste is value! Nontalo explores the line between biomaterials and furniture.
The design of the stool is intended to be made without the use of screws, meaning it's made 100% from Reolivar, which facilitates its recycling and end-of-life cycle. In case of breakage, the material can be easily recycled without a significant energy cost and reshaped without losing its mechanical properties, thereby extending the material's life cycle.

People:
Using a new material made from waste opens the door to creating a new industry based on the circular economy, which is much more environmentally and people-friendly, generating inclusive job opportunities that align with these values. It is a modular design, allowing users to modify it according to their needs. It opens the possibility of considering the need for versatile furniture that adapts to different requirements without the necessity of purchasing three different pieces of furniture in this case. Being versatile also accommodates the reality of an increasing number of cities with small living spaces, where adaptable furniture is required to meet current needs. Since it is a recyclable material, it also enables users to repair the object and avoid the need to purchase new items regularly.

For profit:
Using manufacturing systems that implement innovation compared to traditional ones has allowed us to rethink how to manufacture this piece of furniture, avoiding shapes typically designed for material removal, and consequently generating much less waste in a more environmentally friendly manner. This enables us to create geometries and piece thicknesses that, if attempted with solid wood, would result in a significant environmental and economic cost. Innovation has allowed us to make the piece hollow, using only the necessary material to cover the form.
Where (country, region, etc.) have you primarily carried out your project?

Barcelona, Spain
What is the timeline your project has taken place over?

2022-Present
Keywords

#furniture #material #innovation
If you have a website for your submitted project or idea, please provide the URL
If you have a social media account for your submitted project or idea, please provide the URL

https://www.instagram.com/eneriscollective/
Special Prize Question 1: Is there a mechanism in place to inherit culture and industry as assets for people living in that area 100 or even 1000 years from now?

Preserving culture and industry as assets for future generations is a crucial consideration for sustainability and the long-term well-being of communities.
Education and documentation have been key to understanding the origins of our cultures, keeping alive ways of doing things that have shaped the character and way of life in each region. This provides us with clues that we should continue to do the same so that they repeat everything that benefits society and take into account and can discard with judgment those things that have also led us to the current climate and social crisis.
It is necessary to have policies and legislation that implement legal frameworks to protect cultural heritage, traditional industries, as well as rural environments and forests.
Promoting innovation that respects and is based on traditional practices and industrial techniques can help adapt to the circumstances we are currently facing and will continue to face to preserve culture and industry.
Special Prize Question 2: What is the positive impact on biodiversity? Is the project creating a cycle not just from a human-centered perspective but for the entire ecosystem?

A positive impact on biodiversity of a project speaks to whether the project takes into account factors beyond those centered on humans in its development.

The use of sustainable materials, made from olive waste, reduces the environmental impact on ecosystems by decreasing the need for resource extraction and minimizing waste as it is 100% biodegradable and compostable.

By using wood from renewable sources, olive pits, which do not require the cutting down of forests, the biodiversity of these forests is preserved, maintaining them as green lungs for the planet.

The production of the material requires few resources, such as water and energy, mitigating its environmental effects.

The project incorporates the principles of the circular economy, efficiently using resources generated in the region for product creation, minimizing environmental and economic costs in the transportation of raw materials and the final product once manufactured.
Special Prize Question 3: Are you enabling new forms of collaboration with others? New forms of collaboration might include cross-industry cooperation, co-creation with consumers, or role transformations within the supply chain.

The material is made from waste from various industries, which promotes collaboration across different sectors to generate innovative solutions.

Having worked in different sectors and collaborated on various projects has made it easier for us to create a project with an interdisciplinary perspective, where materials intersect with design, as well as with interior design and agriculture. Collaborating with the biomaterials studio has opened up the opportunity to learn from other disciplines and gain a forward-looking vision of where the furniture industry can go in terms of sustainability. This allows us to contribute our part to establish these foundations.