Tokyo-based designer Kenji Abe has created Aperire, a lighting fixture cast entirely from recycled aluminum cans. Rather than refining the aluminum into a uniform finish, the casting process preserves wrinkles, trapped air pockets, and traces of printed ink from the original cans across the lamp’s exterior. The resulting surface combines irregular ridges, shallow depressions, and porous textures that resemble weathered stone more closely than machined metal. The lamp’s hollow form incorporates multiple openings that diffuse light outward through the chambered structure.
The form draws from foraminifera, microscopic marine organisms characterized by perforated shell structures and internal chambers. Abe developed the shape through layered geometric additions and subtractions that create recessed cavities and irregular apertures throughout the cast aluminum body. Light reflects within the interior before passing outward through the openings, while each casting retains different markings and imperfections caused by retained impurities within the recycled material.
Image Credit: Kenji Abe
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Visible Recycled Material Aesthetics
- Surfaces that retain manufacturing marks and original graphics create unique, authenticity-driven products that challenge pristine, uniform finishes.
- Biomimetic Porous Structures
- Porous forms inspired by foraminifera and other micro-organisms enable new approaches to light diffusion, structural efficiency, and material minimization.
- Found-material Casting Techniques
- Casting processes that incorporate impurities and irregular feedstock produce one-of-a-kind textures and reduce the need for intensive material refinement.
Where This Applies
- Lighting and Fixtures
- Light fixtures that exploit chambered, perforated metal bodies can redefine ambience through sculptural diffusion and material storytelling.
- Sustainable Product Design
- Products designed around visible reuse and minimal processing offer new value propositions centered on circularity and provenance-driven aesthetics.
- Waste-material Manufacturing
- Facilities that adapt to variable, contaminated feedstocks can unlock cost-effective production of distinctive, high-value cast components.
