OOCCA challenges the traditional idea of ownership in design. What made you question this model in the first place?
Well, I’ve been in the industry of interior design for the last 40 years. Before coming to Milan, for the last four years I had an interior design studio in Washington, D.C. in the U.S., where I did a lot of projects for residential buildings, renovations, and also for high luxury residences.
What I noticed is that a lot of waste was created when you do renovations, and with what is happening all around in the world, you can see that materials are resources and some of them are finite.
So I came here to Milan and did a master’s at Politecnico di Milano in strategy design, and I did my thesis on creating circular business models for the furniture sector. From that I created my business, in which I try to extend as much as I can the use of furniture.
I chose hospitality because they do regular renovations throughout the lifetime of a hotel.
Many brands focus on sustainable materials, but you focus on the system and where do you think the real problem lies?
I think the best way to focus sustainability is looking at the supply chain, which is a system.
Actually, this class I gave was about that because when you focus on only one aspect you forget the other ones and they overlap each other.
In the supply chain you have design, which is the beginning of everything, in which you’re going to make decisions throughout the whole extension of the supply chain.
You can make decisions related to the material, manufacturing, how it is going to be used, how it is going to be repaired, how it is going to be recycled, how it is going to be disposed of.
If you can do that always trying to close the loop to create circularity, that’s when you are truly sustainable and truly circular.
Do you think overproduction in design is a creative issue or a structural failure of the industry?
Overproduction? I think it’s an economical decision and it’s a wrong one.
We think that we’re selling more, you’re going to make more money. And we forget there is a lot of money behind repurposing, refurbishing.
We also forget that at some point the materials are going to finish and there is no way you can replace it or you’re going to go to another planet.
Sometimes I think about jewelry pieces that use a little bit of gold. And after one or two years you don’t use them anymore and they look awful, and then you throw them away.
I have a whole drawer with those and I don’t know what to do. And I always think, how many drawers out there have that kind of metal?
This is a lack of thinking on the system.
Do you think innovation can solve this issue?
That’s where the power of innovation comes.
For example, imagine someone creates a collection app for those metals that nobody uses anymore, and a production facility making alloy, when you melt metal you call it alloy, so several metals together.
So imagine if they can create an alloy from all these little pieces of jewelry that people have in their drawers.
This is a business opportunity that creates profit but also helps the planet. At some point people will have no other choice but to look more into innovations like that.
OOCCA operates on a subscription-based model. Do you see business models as the key driver for sustainable change?
Yes, but I mean it depends.
Our clients are high-end luxury hospitality. And when you talk about sustainability in that sense, ecological sustainability, it is negative. They don’t always connect it with luxury.
Because if you talk about recycled plastic, they don’t associate that with luxury furniture. Our suppliers are very high-end, and we prefer natural materials. For example, solid wood over MDF. I very rarely buy MDF, because it is very difficult to recycle and very polluting.
The idea of renting is still sometimes seen as not a luxury service, and we are trying to overcome that. But when you don’t own and you rent, you really extend the life cycle of the product.
We also offer maintenance. If there is a problem, we substitute right away, reupholster, and rotate pieces so hotels never need to close rooms.
So fashion and interiors both struggle with overproduction. What can the fashion industry learn from circular models like OOCCA?
It is really about system thinking. We created 12 sustainability criteria in which we select our suppliers. They don’t need to have all of them, but several.
These include bio-based materials like wood or textiles, recycled materials like aluminum, and timeless design that does not follow trends.All of those criteria help the fashion industry understand that sustainability is a system.
And then there is the business model layer, like subscription, which is another layer of circularity.
I actually think that could work in fashion, because you could send your wardrobe back and change it once a year. You can reuse and redesign materials and garments.
Do you think the industry is genuinely transforming or simply adapting its language around sustainability?
There are a lot of serious players.
For example Poltrona Frau is working on the digital product passport, which is a new transparency system in Europe. They are already implementing maintenance systems for hotels. They have modular furniture systems where parts can be detached and replaced.
Another company is WeWood in Portugal. They use solid wood and have strong social responsibility. They also train families in craftsmanship, passing skills from father to son.
They even designed their factory so workers do not have to lift heavy pieces, using systems of carts instead, to avoid injuries.
Another example is Stella McCartney, who is implementing circular systems in store design using recycled cardboard structures.
So yes, there are companies doing real work.
What advice would you give to young creatives who want to rethink not just products, but the system behind them?
First, I would learn what the system is about.
The system is related to supply chains: you have linear and circular systems. You study the different players in that chain.
Then you use your design decisions to create value within that system. For example, you can design using stock that companies don’t use anymore.
There was a 10-year-old boy at Paris Fashion Week who created a whole fashion show using deadstock materials. The system is not only about materials. There are many other opportunities.
