Portuguese designers André Teoman and Ana Rita Pires collaborated on their new project RE_DE, which gives old fishnets a new life as lamps.

Most modern fishing nets are made of nylon, a type of plastic. These nets are often left behind, contributing to the deaths of marine life, either because they become entangled with it, or because the nets breaks down into tiny particles called microplastic and are mistaken for food.

‘Re’ is a Latin prefix that is used at the beginning of words to show that an action or gesture is repeated. Words like ‘reusing’, ‘recycling’ and ‘rethinking’ derive from this idea of a new life, a new opportunity. The name RE_DE comes from ‘rede’, the Portuguese word for net, but also represents the environmental conscious of the designer.

To prolong the life of nets, Teoman and Pires teamed up to give them a new function. They collected nets at the beach and disassembled them into individual threads. These nylon threads were woven with other plastics on a traditional loom. The mesh material was used to make two types of lamps, one that hangs horizontally and one that hangs vertically. The light shines through the translucent mesh.

In addition to lamps, the designers suggest the material could also be used as covering, screen and textile.

For other project that reuse fishing nets, click here.

Photos: AT Studio