Vicente Varella
- City
- Calpe
- Country
- Spain
I am a product designer, I design and make products out of waste. Mainly recycled plastics but open to other waste streams aswell.
I consistently work with these materials to understand their limits in the modern world and their markets. Also to prove a point, to spark new aplications and to help close the loop in those “hard-to-tackle” waste streams.
I like to think I’m half-carpenter too. I understand materials and processes through my hands and by physically exploring their properties and capabilities. This helps me find simple and functional applications for materials that would otherwise remain waste.
I first got introduced by working at precious plastic HQ back in 2019. And since then I collaborated with companies and organizations alike that wanted to desing and develop products using recycled plastics.
I often design furniture combining a range of processess and techniques, depending on the material. My latest new skill is learning to use a CNC and prior to that I worked and developed techniques to bend plastic sheets.
Artworks
Research by the Universitat de Barcelona reveals that ~2,000 informal waste pickers collect up to 40% of the metal scrap entering the city's recycling system—160 tonnes daily and 44,500 tonnes yearly. A Letter for the City translates this data into physical interventions across underused public spaces. Fences, construction sites and abandoned lots become unexpected canvases, bringing overlooked realities into view and reconnecting the data with the urban context it comes from.
Developed for Komma, Esslingen’s cultural center, Naipes explores recycled plastic through the design and making of a public bench. Entirely produced within their facilities, the project became a hands-on exploration of different techniques for working with recycled plastics. The resulting piece brings these processes into a functional object, making the material and its possibilities visible within the community.
Lamp MKI explores the optical qualities of recycled CD cases through the illusion of a floating lightbulb. Transparency, trapped bubbles and imperfections formed during the melting process become defining features of the piece. Different bending techniques shape the material into a minimal lampshade, turning the transformation of discarded plastic into part of the lamp’s visual identity.