Agori Project (video)

The AGORI project was born in October 2008 when I noticed that a sidewalk and a big part of a street in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo were occupied for several weeks by a large fallen tree.  Unfortunately, that tree was cut and thrown away as trash.  It was at that moment that I recognized the inefficiencies and inconveniences of the fallen trees’ collecting systems in Buenos Aires and the way in which those trees were discarded.

A few days later, in the streets of Tigre, he found a small log. He worked with it until making his first AGORI product, named Mamu lamp.  While working with it, I prevented the log from becoming trash as the rest of the other fallen trees in Buenos Aires, which are mainly used as fire-wood or soil filling.



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Tree collection

All of the AGORI products are wholly made of the wood of trees that fall down in the city of Buenos Aires and its suburbs, using the log without cutting it.  The trees fall down mainly because of storms, strong winds, floods or disease, and any kind of wood is used, which makes each product unique.

The essence of the produce lies in the history of the tree, i.e. its origin, the place where it grew and the motive which led to its fall.

The finished product respects the natural characteristics and imperfections of the tree, and allows the log to present itself and suggest its final form.  It is amazing how beauty can be found in unexpected places as you work the wood.

The production process has an important social ingredient: the participation of people in this project is a key factor.  People who know of AGORI frequently call us to inform of the presence of fallen trees and asking us to collect them.


Drying and classification

All of the recovered woods are guarded and classified in our warehouse by date, place of collection and type of wood.  The working process has several steps, the first of which is drying.  The wood must dry for some months before handcrafters start their job.  Then the wood must keep on drying for some more time before giving it its final form and finishing details.


Unique pieces

All of the pieces are unique because the color, figure, tact and form of each log cannot be duplicated.  Each product comes with a reference indicating date and place of collection of the log, creating a special link with the buyer.

As all of AGORI’s products are made with the wood of recovered fallen trees, the experience of walking along our showroom resembles the experience of walking through the streets of Buenos Aires.  Buying an AGORI product is taking home some part of the history of Buenos Aires.  The main idea of this project is to preserve the fallen tree giving it a second life by occupying, for example, the living space of our home.

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The name AGORI

The name AGORI comes from the greek word agori which means “little one” and is the expression by which my grandmother still calls me.  On a personal level, it has a meaning of “life and growth”, and in that way the name is very well connected to this project.

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Commitment

Our objective is to become a leading company committed with ecology and society.  We keep looking for fallen trees, as big as they can get, to make products other than lamps and chairs but big furniture such as tables and large scale equipment.  Our mission is clear: look after the environment, clean the city and add value.