Post-digital furniture
Hopkins Design were commissioned to design a set of modern furniture pieces and household objects. The ambition for the client and us was to develop a set of pieces that would be as honest in form and as truthful to the materials as possible, whilst also proposing something avant-guard.
This set of interior furniture and objects focuses on the theme of the intelligent use of materials in order to create complex and unexpected geometries.
We developed a series of iterative design models, with the help of advanced rapid prototyping, to enable fluid discussions on design development. This provided an invaluable platform of transparent design communication between the client and ourselves. Once settled on the design proposals for each piece, we mixed modern manufacturing tools with traditional craft to develop them. Using only environmentally and socially responsible materials.
All of the following pieces are made with advanced digital design software, manufactured with precision CADCAM CNC 3-axis or 5-axis milling technology and finally finished by hand with traditional craftsmanship, here in the United-Kingdom. These pieces reflect the latter in their precise assembly and quality finish.
DIMPLE TABLE
A dining table that integrates within its morphology three dimples. Placed above the location of the legs underneath, these dimples act as bowls within the table. The table is beyond a table, suggesting vessels to exhibit or place items within. The table is milled out of high grade birch plywood, assembled, sanded, polished by hand and finally finished in Danish Oil.
LOW TABLE
Three point stability and flying buttresses were the inspiration behind this piece. We set out to find the most simple yet elegant form as possible. Informed through the study of structural dead and live loads of the table within structural engineering software, gave us a baseline structural strategy that could be fine tuned and sculpted in further modelling software. Manufactured through CNC milling, similar to the Dipping Table is then assembled and hand finished in polished Danish Oil.
DANCING VASES
Sculptures of the sensual movement of two people dancing. The forms dance and intertwined with each other to create a duo of Vases. The sculpted shapes are 3D printed in high precision resin, to then be used as Masters for slip cast moulds. These moulds are then cast in Porcelain or Earthenware, kilned and glazed on the inside face to leave a natural finish to the outside.
SINUOUS SHELVES
Drawn up to the scale and size of the room, these shelves flow from one level to the next interconnect between each other, aiming to emphasise fluidity and movement within the host space. Made from Birch Ply and Recycled plastic the two materials contrast each other in texture and colour: Satin polish and high gloss white.
PEAR BOWL
Based on the curvature of a Pear, curves and arcs were extracted. These curves were then assembled, sculpted together parametrically and thickened. The bowl becomes a representation of the multitude of curves and arcs found in a Pear. This geometry is then 3D printed out of steel in a jewelry shop here in London, sandblasted and polished by hand.
