The idea of a startup that wanted to give value even to wood that would otherwise have found no use. Creating a unique object that will help the local craftspeople affected by the storm.
A new lease of life for the trees felled by the storm that struck the Alps nearly a year ago. Many are still lying on the ground, and will find no other fate than becoming wood chips or firewood. So why not create a new, unique object from the wood of larches and Norway spruces? That is exactly what the team at Vaia thought — the startup born just a few months after the event that changed the slopes of the Triveneto for many years to come.
"When the storm hit the mountains I came back home and was struck by the fact that all around there wasn't a single tree left," recalls Federico Stafani, one of Vaia's founders and a native of Valsugana. "But even more striking was the immediate response of the local people, who got to work straight away. We wanted to play our part too."
That is how the idea was born of recovering that wood and transforming it into unique objects within a circular economy framework: a cube that amplifies music and sounds by placing a smartphone inside it. A passive speaker that amplifies sounds and music without consuming any additional energy.
"In this way we recover raw materials from places where natural disasters have occurred, to create iconic objects," Federico continues. "Each cube has a unique split made by a local woodcutter. We choose where to make it, but it is the wood that decides how it will split." The wood used is solid timber, which gives Vaia considerable quality and value, and each one features a split made by the craftsperson using an axe that follows the natural grain of the already fractured wood.
The speaker is made using one of several types of wood sourced from the area — including, for example, the spruce from Val di Fassa, a prized variety of Norway spruce that has always been used to make violins, owing to its particular structure that allows it to amplify sound. "Furthermore, for every object sold we have decided to plant a tree in the Dolomite area affected by the storm," explains Federico. The startup collaborates with Etifor, the spinoff of the University of Padua already engaged in reforesting part of the affected areas, through the Wowalps project.
A deeply felt project, strongly championed by this group of very young people who are surely the future of these mountains and these valleys. The best side of them — committed, creative and community-minded.