Ecolo box

Designed by Enzo Mari in 1992 for Officina Alessi, and subsequently distributed as part of the Ecolo project in 1995, this demonstration case transforms a group of discarded plastic containers into a critical statement on production and consumption. The case brings together several bottles cut according to the designer’s instructions and converted into vases, accompanied by illustrated labels and a panel showing the different possible transformations. Mari therefore does not design a new object to be manufactured, but proposes a method for extending the life of an existing industrial product.

The case is made of wood, plastic and paper. Its compartmentalised structure, assembled from light-coloured wooden panels, is fitted with a hinged lid, retaining chains and a closure using wooden buttons and string. The inner panel carries a photographic and typographic print, while the polyethylene containers are cut by hand to create openings capable of holding flowers and stems. The contrast between the almost scientific precision of the presentation and the ordinariness of the recycled materials is one of the project’s defining features.

Its value lies not in the intrinsic worth of its components, but in its status as a pedagogical prototype and demonstration tool, produced in very limited numbers to present Ecolo in Alessi stores in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Complete cases retaining their containers, labels and documentation are now particularly rare.
A 1992 demonstration case is preserved in the Museo Alessi and was presented by the Design Museum in London in its exhibition devoted to Enzo Mari. Elements from the Ecolo project, dating from around 1992–1995, are also held in the collections of Design Museum Gent.

Out of production