Not As You Know It

Leather is a beautiful, natural material but it has some disadvantages. Jorge Penadés, a Spanish Interior Architect, initiated this project starting from these downsides, instead of focusing on what and how it is usually put to use.

Leather goes through different kinds of tanning processes, but even so, its qualities depend directly on the part of the animal where it came from. The more the body part moved, the lower it is in quality. So no matter how the leather was treated, there is always a large amount of inferior material, topped with plenty of leftovers, offcuts and other discarded materials.

Penadés looked for a new production method that has the possibility to transform the waste – that was deemed worthless – into a useful, innovative material.  The result is Structural Skin, a project that celebrates the inherent qualities of used skins, giving it a new role. Leather is a strong material, with added visual qualities that he plays off in these designs. He emphasizes the capacities of the material, going beyond the two-dimensional uses we are used to see. Leather is given a new role, one that had not been considered previously.

Structural Skin is a new material made out of leftovers from leather factories. Leather is a beautiful material but very inefficient in terms of its manufacturing process due to its natural origins No matter which tanning process a hide went through, the quality of a piece of leather depends directly on the part of the animal that came from. The higher the movement, the lower the quality; some experts indicate that just the 13% of a hide is top quality and up to the 43% is considered good quality. This fact means that companies involved in the production of leather goods produce a large amount of discarded materials, leftovers and offcuts. After extensive material investigations, Jorge Penadés devised a new production method that transforms the apparently worthless waste from leather factories, into an innovative material that is made 100% from an animal source. Any resin or chemical component has been used along the production, carefully considering the environmental impact of the project. The result is Structural Skin, a material-based experimental project that celebrates the inherent qualities of given skins while defining a new role for leather that had not been previously considered. The strong material language and its visual qualities have been harnessed in a capsule collection, created to emphasize the material’s capabilities beyond the common two-dimensional expressions of leather. *If you need further information please visit: www.jorgepenades.com