Re-designing recovered materials. Case Study: Fiberglass in the nautical sector

In the last decades, the relationship between designers and materials changed radically, bringing designers to relate to materials manipulation and production processes. At the end of the twentieth century, the growing attention to environmental issues reduced the choice of materials to those considered sustainable and risking to mortify, together with the materiality, the expressive-sensorial richness of the objects. Therefore, recycled materials have become part of the choices available to designers, foreshadowing new challenges for redesigning their aesthetic aspect and identity. Recently, the dissemination of the maker culture through the Fablabs and the promulgation of the DIY phenomenon, have favourited a rapprochement between designers and materials and their transformation, leading them to enter the interspace between research on materials and their applications. The paper focuses on the experimental research aimed to design new materials experiences and identities which allowed the exploration of new forms of recycling matter recovered from the decommissioning of GFRP boats.