Craftsmanship and recycled materials in manifesto-rugs. This collection of four rugs results from the shared goal of Álvaro Catalán de Ocón and GAN to raise awareness and combat, through craftsmanship, one of the great global problems of the industrial age: plastic waste. Each rug is a faithful and scaled representation of one of the most polluted and polluting rivers on the planet: Ganges, Yangtze, Indus, and Niger. The rugs are hand-tufted with recycled plastic fibers (100% recycled PET), a material that takes on a new meaning and highlights the paradoxical beauty of its origins: rivers, wonders of nature, which have been converted into landfills that carry thousands of tons of plastic into the oceans.

After completing his Business Management studies at Madrid Complutense University, Álvaro Catalán de Ocón began his training in product design at the Instituto Europeo di Design in Milan (1999-2000) and later graduates with honors from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London (2000-2004). In 2004 he started his own studio in Barcelona where he designed LA FLACA lamp, winner of the Design Plus Award (Frankfurt) and DELTA Awards in Barcelona. In 2009 he moved his studio to Madrid where he also taught at the Instituto Europeo di Design and is a member of the Executive Board of DIMAD (Asociación Diseñadores de Madrid). In 2007 and 2010 his designs were exhibited in the Salone Satellite Milano and are winners of the Design Report Award of this last edition. Since then, he introduced his new projects at Spazio Rossana Orlandi Milano every year.

During 2011 and 2012 he conceived and developed the PET Lamp Project, which has been a growing success since its presentation at Galleria Rosanna Orlandi in 2013. Since then the project has been developed in several countries such as Colombia, Chile, Japan, Ethiopia, Australia, Thailand and most recently Ghana. This project is backed up by several prizes and nominations: nomination for the London Design Museum as best product of the year, CODESPA for best PYME (SME), the AD prize for Best Emerging Design Studio, Silver Delta Award 2014 in Barcelona, Design for Development Award in the 4th Ibero American Biennieal of Design (BID_14), nomination for the German Design Award 2015 and finalist at Ecoembes R Awards, for Best Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project, among others.

His work has been exhibited in internationally renowned galleries and is part of the collection of museums such as Victoria and Alberts Museum (London), National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), M+ Museum (Hong Kong), Bauhaus (Dessau), VitraHaus (Bassel), the London Museum, Issey Miyake Foundation 21_21 Design Sight (Tokyo), Rossana Orlandi Gallery (Milan), MINT Gallery (London) and the Spanish Machado-Muñoz Gallery, among others.