LIRIO Design

Paul Silverman began LIRIO Design building solid wood furniture and now works primarily in natural plasters and hempcrete, a plant-based bio-concrete that is carbon negative and biodegradable. His current collection answers the problem of permanent waste: each piece is hand-cast, plastered in progressive layers, air-dried with no additional energy input, and polished to a waterproof Tadelakt sheen by a technique two thousand years old. The material sets his vocabulary — hempcrete cannot be poured or carved precisely, so edges stay soft and curved, and the plaster is held in a wood structure that responds to it, much like traditional Japanese homes. Silverman studied architecture and environmental science, which explains his fixation on circularity, and credits working for Tyler Hayes at BDDW as the experience that redirected his life. Based in Pennsylvania Amish country, he designs objects meant to last decades and then return to the earth, treating decay as a core design element.