Ephea gave me an open brief. Not an object, but a manifesto of materiality: something to slow us down and reawaken the senses. Before decisions or meaning comes feeling; it leads intuition.

From my piece in the Ephea Journal:

“When I first envisioned the Ephea Book, I thought about creating something far beyond a simple sample collection. I wanted to create an object that would function like an archive, but feel like a gallery, a space where each element had time and room to tell its own story.

I drew inspiration from vinyl records’ cases, yet I reimagined their structure to frame each sample as a unique material narrative. Every sheet of Ephea carries its own expression: textures, tones, densities unfolding one after another, designed to be explored slowly, by hand, with presence.

I wanted the structure to guide the journey, to decelerate it.

Not just a swatch book to flip through, but an instrument of discovery: tactile, intuitive, crafted to invite care and curiosity. Each gesture becomes a moment of encounter with the material, a silent dialogue between fingers and paper.

This is what makes the Ephea Book unique: it transforms consultation into experience, samples into stories, choices into discoveries.”

Question: are you familiar with Ephea's mycelium based materials?
Take a look here.

P.S. I’ve collaborated with Ephea and Mogu (Ephea’s sister company for architectural materials) for some time, and the evolution of their materials has been remarkable. Here is an interview in The New Bookbinder, Vol. 40 (2020), where I tested their early materials.