From the Lagoon to Rebirth: Drying Venice’s Bricole

When the lagoon calls, the wood responds.

We had the honour of welcoming a truly unique material into our facility: Venice’s bricole, the iconic wooden poles that guide boats through the Venetian lagoon and, once worn by time and tide, are replaced and reclaimed.

These poles, steeped in salt and history, arrive still wet from the sea, often with mussels embedded in their surface — like tiny guardians of time. When unwrapped, a scent of the sea filled our workshop, creating an unexpected, almost poetic sensory experience.

But poetry gave way to precision.

Thanks to our vacuum drying technology, we treated these woods with the utmost care, reducing internal moisture in a controlled and gentle process. Vacuum drying allows us to work with salt-rich materials like these, without stressing the fibres or altering their structure.

The result? Dry, stable wood that preserves its grain, sculpted by time and brackish water. A valuable material, ready to be reborn in new forms.

A Value Beyond the Wood

These poles, rich in history and symbolic of Venetian culture, gain economic value precisely because of their uniqueness. They are often repurposed to create fine furnishings and decorative objects, where aesthetics blend with history to give life to exclusive, meaningful pieces.

For us, it wasn’t just a job — it was a journey through the memory of the lagoon, carried out with technical precision and deep respect for the material.