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Within Experimentadesign’s EXD’13 Biennale, Corticeira Amorim presented the METAMORPHOSIS exhibition, the result of a research and development project on the potential of cork. Showcased at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon from 7 November – 1 December, the opening to the public was attended by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Professor Aníbal Cavaco Silva and the Secretary of State for Culture, Jorge Barreto Xavier.

METAMORPHOSIS was designed to stimulate the innovative, creative and cutting-edge use of cork, as a unique raw material. The curatorial concept, commissioned by Experimentadesign, was based on the ideal to broaden the horizons of this decidedly Portuguese material.

Pritzker Prize winners, Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura and Herzog & de Meuron were invited to participate in the project, along with celebrated architects Alejandro Aravena, Amanda Levete, João Luís Carrilho da Graça and Manuel Aires Mateus as well as three top product designers, James Irvine, Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa.

The authors were given creative carte-blanche to devise new terrain, functions and forms while using cork, which is an important resource in the cultural material and production of the 21st century. Fascinated by the characteristics and properties of cork, they became engrossed in every stage of the process, in an intense interaction with Corticeira Amorim and the curator, from the development of the concept, choice of the type cork and prototyping testing to the assessment of the final result.

Taking full advantage of the material’s extraordinary versatility and capacity to be transformed, they converted cork – the theme of the whole concept and creative development – into unusual items that combine design and functionality and demonstrate its unique technical and environmental credentials.