dig.nify magazine Summer 2026 | Page 31

The final crop and material on which Fernando set his sights was the humble avocado, another plant native to Mexico and another crop which NAFTA propelled to “fame.” The demand for avocados, the source of the ever-popular guacamole, outstripped supply resulting in

swaths of the biological diverse jungles being plowed down to accommodate the growing of more avocados.

As with corn and agave, the communities that lay in the path of the need to feed global demand were fractured. Growing and harvesting avocados – now known as “green gold” – is now produced on a such a scale that Fernando had difficulty identifying a way in which to bring attention to the crop, the destruction it was causing to biodiversity, and the impact it has had on Mexico’s rural communities. However, Fernando soon found a solution: he purchased fresh avocado skins from factories that would otherwise dump them into landfills and then used a technique he developed whereby he turned them into a kind of leather like that he uses for marquetry.

The process is both laborious and time consuming, as the leather needs to be cut into smaller pieces which are then fitted together like pieces of a puzzle and adhered to a material which can then be applied to a piece of furniture. According to Laposse, each piece of

furniture takes about four months to create, with three people working on it every day, eight hours a day.

 

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Opposite Page Above:

Long Dog Bench & Agave

Opposite Page Below:

Furry Bar with Door Open

Below:

Avacado Skin Console

Photographs Courtesy of:

Fernando Laposse