David Rockwell's Milan Design Week display expresses affectionate homage to cork during the presentation.
Cork's Sustainable Potential Showcased at Casa Cork
At Milan Design Week 2025, David Rockwell's Casa Cork exhibit is shining a spotlight on cork, a material that is underutilized in design despite its numerous advantages. The exhibit, a collaboration between Rockwell Group and Corticeira Amorim, is an interactive, communal hub aimed at promoting cork as a versatile, eco-friendly material.
The heart of the exhibition is a dramatic centerpiece: a 3D-printed six-foot replica of a cork tree, clad in virgin cork bark, created by Spanish workshop Factum Arte. This tree serves as a metaphor for the tree of life, symbolizing sustainability and the potential for reuse of materials.
Cork is a sustainable material primarily because it is harvested from the bark of the cork oak tree without felling the tree, allowing the bark to regenerate approximately every 9 to 12 years. This renewable and non-harmful process makes cork a natural carbon sink, sequestering carbon for decades. Additionally, cork is biodegradable, recyclable, and offers functional benefits such as thermal and acoustic insulation, elasticity, natural water and fire resistance, and durability.
Despite these advantages, cork's underutilization in design is due to limited awareness, traditional biases, and the need for evolving design practices that fully embrace its unique properties. Cork is often associated with wine stoppers or niche flooring rather than broad architectural or design innovation. Its soft, cellular structure and natural texture may pose limitations or require specific technical know-how to incorporate it seamlessly in diverse design applications. Moreover, compared to synthetic or widely known materials, cork has received less mainstream attention and investment until recently, limiting its visibility in high-end contemporary design.
Rockwell's exhibit aims to address these issues, showcasing cork not only as an eco-friendly material but also one full of aesthetic, tactile, and functional possibilities that can transform interiors and architecture. Inside Casa Cork, various cork products are showcased, including tasselled cork tiebacks, illuminated cork sconces, cork 'parquet', a cork chandelier and bar, and fabrics, tiles, and wall covers made from cork.
The installation also features pieces from a student design competition, including 'Desculpe Desculpe' by Emily Kaline, a cork headpiece designed for gallery spaces, and the 'Krystyna Luminaire' by Katarzyna Kubrak, a lampshade textured with virgin cork. The 'Krystyna Luminaire' highlights the fire-retardant properties of virgin cork.
Rockwell's studio has partnered with nonprofit Cork Collective to repurpose wine corks from over 40 restaurants, hotels, and stores in New York for community projects such as playground revitalization. Sustainability is a cornerstone of good design, according to David Rockwell, who is 'obsessed' with cork and believes it to be one of the best materials due to its unique properties such as impermeability, buoyancy, elasticity, fire retardancy, and aging beautifully.
Casa Cork offers amenities such as a cork chair seating area, a cork bar, and live discussions. The exhibit underscores the material’s ability to foster a deeper ecological connection and a circular, responsible approach to materials in design, encouraging broader adoption and innovation. Less than one percent of the 13 billion wine corks produced worldwide annually are recycled, making it an untapped resource.
For more information about Casa Cork, visit Rockwell Group's website, Corticeira Amorim's website, and Cork Collective's website.
[1] Cork: A Natural Carbon Sink. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.amorim.com/en/cork-a-natural-carbon-sink
[2] The Sustainable Benefits of Cork. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.amorim.com/en/the-sustainable-benefits-of-cork
[3] The Underutilization of Cork in Design. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://corkcollective.org/the-underutilization-of-cork-in-design
[4] David Rockwell's Casa Cork at Milan Design Week 2025. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.rockwellgroup.com/news/david-rockwells-casa-cork-at-milan-design-week-2025
[5] The Versatility of Cork. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cork-association.eu/en/the-versatility-of-cork
Cork's potential in interior design and lifestyle extends beyond its traditional uses in home-and-garden settings, showcasing sustainability and versatility as key factors. The Casa Cork exhibit at Milan Design Week 2025 is a testament to cork's eco-friendly properties and aesthetic appeal, promoting it as a material for lifestyle transformation with a focus on sustainable living.
