Francesco Faccin: Re-Fire

Re-Fire, a kit for manually lighting a fire, is a project by Francesco Faccin presented by Tempo Italiano during Stockholm Design Week.

Re-Fire, by Francesco Faccin, is a kit for manually lighting a fire; it was inspired by the systems used by primitive Man.

Two pieces of different types of wood – a piece of hardwood and a piece of softwood – are rubbed together; in just a few seconds, the friction produces smouldering ash and this can be used to light a fuse in a highly inflammable dry material. Each component is essential for the creation of fire, and the specific wood types selected correspond to a precise technical characteristic.

Francesco Faccin explained: “This project has been designed to manually light the fire in a completely primitive manner. Let’s start with fire, the symbolic element that displaced primitive Man from an animal-like dimension and projected him towards a future of phenomenal innovations. Fire was invented and not discovered because, even though it exists in nature, Man had to find a way to produce it. This was thestarting point for the project, the perfecting of the ability, the capacity of vision, overcoming the difficulties.

Let’s start deep in the past, in the very beginning, when Man was fighting for survival yet everything was crystal clear, void of the superfluous and semantic misunderstandings where ‘things’ were concerned.Starting with this approach, we can bring ourselves back into contact with our inner being that requires the simple things in life, articles that are well-made and essential for our survival; items that bind us inextricably to nature yet they exploit the immense scientific heritage that Man has produced over thousands of years”.

For Francesco Faccin, Re-Fire is an attempt to re-synchronize with Man’s most instinctive needs using a contemporary means. Producing an article that will produce fire obliged the designer to repeat the gestures of our ancestors, in this case using sophisticated tools that are readily available to all, such as laser cutting machines, CNC routers etc.