CARBONIFEROUS
Carboniferous
Studio Nucleo, 2011
By Piergiorgio Robino & Stefania Fersini
Cardboard honeycomb, fiberglass resin, carbon fiber
280 x 119 x 72h cm
Unique piece
Carboniferous is a project inspired by the Secret Society of Carbonari,
Italy’s best-known and most important secret societies in the nineteenth century.
Founded to fight the Restoration and obtain a liberal constitution, the Carbonari used to
communicate with symbols and jargon used by coal workers: the charcoal burners.
The nineteenth-century mines were an intricate tangle of tunnels and galleries that spread
into the earth’s bowels. Similarly, the Carbonari communicated through a complex network
of secret codes and symbols to avoid being discovered.
Carboniferous, like coal, is a table made up of numerous sedimentary layers, crystallized in a fast movement
that guides the eye towards the future. The honeycomb cardboard, covered in fibreglass and resin,
is finished with layers of carbon fibre that make up the design and trace its motion in its unique strength.
Like coal, Italy is the result of a revolution that, like combustion,
has dissolved and transfigured every particle, reshaping borders and merging cultures.
© 2023 Studio Nucleo