Back in 2011, Alvaro Catalan de Ocon took part in a project focused on the reuse of PET plastic bottles as a way of addressing the plastic waste issue that was happening in the Colombian Amazon. As an industrial designer, his starting point was focusing on the deep contradiction that is hidden behind each PET bottle: a product with a very short lifespan that takes decades to decompose. Alvaro reconsidered the role of the plastic bottle by merging local weaving techniques with industrial lighting. At this moment, PET Lamp is a consolidated project in different communities of artisans worldwide, which enables tradition and local culture cosmogony to be reflected on the final product.
The PET Lamp started as an awareness project, strongly linked to the PET bottle reuse. Over time it unfolded also as an anthropological study of different indigenous weaving traditions, underlining the role that craft knowledge can play in local culture, and accentuating preservation of craft knowledge and tradition.
The PET Lamp project was initially founded in 2012 through a collaboration with artisans from the Cauca region that had been displaced by the guerrilla war in Colombia. The lampshades created by these artisans reflect the community character and their culture symbolism, proving the viability of the project. PET Lamp company is born the same year and the collection EPERARA-SIAPIDARA is exhibited for the first time at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile Milan in 2013, raising interest among international media, which allowed PET Lamp to approach publics from all corners of the world.
