Soil Objects
2014 — on-going
Soil Objects is a collection that explores the possibilities of soil as material for creating functional pieces for the home and continues Raya’s desire to design objects that have minimum environmental impact.
The devastation that extreme weather is wreaking globally makes climate change impossible to ignore; at every level of production and consumption, things must change. Thus the work and ethos of design is important to contribute to such a push. As is the investigation into new materials that have the potential to replace those that are destroying our world.
Unlike clay soil pieces do not require firing in a kiln, air drying instead. The raw soil is unstable, so the forms will degrade with time, however, they will turn back to earth without leaving any harmful traces.
In this case the short life of the object is seen as a positive feature, if compared to the rather negative impact of more common commercial materials, that take hundreds of years to decompose.
As per Roland Barthes “The essence of an object has something to do with the way it turns into trash”, Raya will add the responsibility of being designer in a worrisome times.