5

3

Constellation Lamp

4Ad-hoc Chair

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Bourgeois Knuckles

6Garland Light

exploring the potential of copper in design world

issue 5 January 10www.copperindesign.org

copperindesign

objects

lighting

furnishing

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7Found Objectsart

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8Alloy Copper Tiles

9Robber Baron

10Citadel Lighting

11When Objects Work

12Base Lightlighting

objects

lighting

objects

art

www.copperdesign.org is a meeting space for contemporary designers and their followers. This

international platform provides a comprehensive source of information on the crafting of the red metal:

copper creations, first-hand accounts from designers, exhibitions, competitions and many others. The

website is aimed at creators, design professionals, journalists and all copper-loving netsurfers, offering

them an invitation to (re)discover this material whose natural properties have established it over the past

few years as an essential feature of the design scene.

Sponsor: European Copper Institute www.eurocopper.org

Studio 1ThousandConstellation Lamp

There are a great many lights and chandeliers that

emulate an explosion of light through glass and lines of

refraction. The Constellation Chandelier from Studio 1

Thousand, however, accomplishes this feat through the

simple use of LEDs and bent copper stems that array

downward from a wrapped base. Upon closer inspection,

the clamps securing the LED clusters might even bring

to mind Ingo Mauer’s Zettelz lamps, although this is

anything but derivative.

From a tech standpoint, the chandelier uses 91 separate

arms, each having four energy-efficient LEDs attached,

something which makes the prospect of owning a

chandelier in the first place more palatable.

3lighting

Jean Marie MassaudAd-hoc Chair

Acclaimed French designer Jean-Marie Massaud is

known for his unconventional approach to design. He

aims to blend intelligence with feeling, nature with

culture, always ensuring that it is the human being who

takes pride of place. Ad-hoc chair certainly satisfies all those

aims with its light yet incredibly strong structure.

Constructed entirely by hand, each piece is unique and

“ad hoc” in the way that its webbed shell is constructed.

The lounge chair, produced by the Spanish furniture firm

Viccarbe, is made in brass, lacquered in white, black, or

orange epoxy, or entirely in brass finish.

Epoxy versions are suitable for both indoor and outdoor

use.

4furnishing

Jonathan SabineBourgeois Knuckles

MatCult is an abbreviation of the term ‘material

culture’. It is a line of objects designed by Jonathan Sabine

and produced by manufacturers in and around Toronto,

Canada. These objects are intended to explore primitivity

/technological sophistication and materiality/

conceptuality within the context of furniture and product

design.

All the objects in the line are designed around local

manufacturing capabilities. In this way, MatCult is an

accurate, if limited, portrayal of the current character of

Canadian design and manufacturing.

Thinking outside the wine box, Jonathan Sabine has

come up with a unique bottle opener design called the

Bourgeois Knuckles. The integration of the brass knucks

makes it appear that this is the purpose the weapon was

truly intended to serve. It certainly looks like it would make

removing a cork a lot easier.

Jonathan Sabine describes the product as “a cross

between two iconic objects whose cultural and socio-

economic associations lie at opposite ends of the

spectrum from one another.”

5objects

Tord BoontjeGarland Light

Tord Boontje is an award-winning Dutch designer

who mainly works with silhouettes of leaves and animals,

designs inspired by nature.

The Garland shade, manufactured by Artecnica in the

US, is probably his most successful commercial project.

A photographic process typically employed to make

electronic components was used to create intricate

patterns of cascading flowers and leaves on brass. It is

created by laser cutting a thin sheet of brass and copper

into the shapes of leaves, flowers and petals which then

form a flat sheet. This sheet has a central stem from which

all the shapes are connected and it is this stem which

forms the structure of the shade.

Tord Boontje infuses his work with romance that typifies

the 17th and 18th centuries, but the result is a piece that

is truly modern and innovative.

6lighting

Oscar DiazFound Objects

Found is a project by London-based designer Oscar

Diaz for Airmail, an exhibition which opened during last

London Design Festival.

Found is a super light, metal-coated cutlery set, which

has been “designed” by editing plastic bottles. The spoon,

fork, and knife, have all been made from parts of existing

bottles found at the local supermarket.

Since there are so many shapes already available, with

each brand fighting to be seen on the shelves, Oscar’s

approach has been to work more as an editor than a

designer, and just select the bottles for their shapes to

make the cutlery set.

Using a process normally employed to produce intricate

metal instruments, the plastic cuttings are coated with

copper and then tin plated for a metallic finish. While

mixing handcraft and uncommon processes, the project

represents a twist on the re-use of existing objects and

makes evidence of an environment clearly saturated with

shapes.

By finding objects within objects, Found suggests that

we can look afresh and reevaluate our surroundings by

uncovering the beauty hidden in banal, disposable

objects. The result is a simple and understated cutlery set

with a familiar look.

7art

Karim RashidAlloy Copper Tiles

Internationally-awarded industrial designer Karim

Rashid has created an innovative, striking range of organic

shaped metal wall and floor tiles for Alloy, a highly-

regarded Australian metal tile manufacturer, creating a

unique 3D effect that contradicts the traditional square

tile. The result of the much-anticipated collaboration is

an innovative collection of eight, predominantly organic

metal tile ‘cells’ for interior and exterior design use.

The metal tile designs are suitably named flux, infinit,

karma, kismet, ninja, kink and ubiquity and are available

in copper, stainless steel, brass and titanium.

Every tile is punched from individual sheets of solid,

1.6mm high quality metal to deliver a seamless,

hardwearing finish designed to last a lifetime.

“I have always been obsessed with patterns,” says Karim.

“Working with Alloy has given me a great opportunity to

play with the idea of pattern, grid, and repetition. A

pattern is a way of giving richness and depth to our

Cartesian landscape. The more diversity of line, shape,

and composition, the more interesting a single cell is.

The undulating, curvilinear forms give a 2-dimensional

surface a sense of 3-dimensions. These elements repeat

in a predictable manner, but they are designed to

contradict the square tile.”

8objects

Studio JobRobber Baron

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Dutch designers Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel

formed Studio Job, a young creative team working

between art and design.

Their five monumental pieces, cast in bronze, combine

stylised elements from famous landmarks around the

world and represent industrial power, wealth and

corruption.

Robber Baron is an important suite of five cast-bronze

furnishings, consisting of a Cabinet, Mantel Clock, Table,

Standing Lamp, and Jewel Safe. Magnificent in scale,

exceptionally finely modeled, detailed, and cast, with

precision mechanical movements where required,

incorporating deeply carved iconographic reliefs, with

areas highly polished, gilded, or patinated, these works

are guild-like in their master craftsmanship.

Their mirror finish reflecting the outrageous excesses of

America’s 19th century tycoons and Russia’s new

oligarchs, these surreal, highly-expressive furnishings,

each a complex composition of multiple visual elements

depicting a narrative - much like a cathedral’s stained

glass windows or its majestic bronze front doors -

represent an interior belonging to a powerful industrial

leader or his heirs. With clouds of pollution belching from

towering smoke stacks, and missiles, falcons, gas masks,

warplanes and wrenches adorning golden surfaces,

Robber Baron celebrates and shames both art and

industry.

art

Jan PauwelsCitadel Lighting

Just as halogen lamps - once used exclusively for

vehicle headlights - revolutionised lighting design in the

1970s and took residential interiors by storm, LED (light-

emitting diode) technology appears destined to conquer

the future. Light-emitting diodes are small, durable and

extraordinarily efficient. Here as well, Dutch designer Jan

Pauwels is at the forefront of design with his hanging

lamp Citadel Light among the first to recognise the

potential of LEDs. The elegant aesthetic of this lamp plays

with the experimental character inherent in the

pioneering work with this forward-looking technology.

Its realisation hinges on Pauwels’s intense involvement

in the process. He not only designs everything himself,

but - a rare exception amongst his peers - also produces

everything himself in his design lab.

Citadel, available in three different size and made from

copper and brass, is made by Quasar, an international

renawed lighting producer.

10lighting

John PawsonWhen Objects Work

When Objects Work is a new collection of small

objects for Interis designed by the famous English

minimalist architect John Pawson.

The main body of the candle holder is a bronze cylinder

with storage for seven candles. The solid bronze top has

a curved upper surface. As well as acting as a lid to the

container, this bronze element acts as a holder for a single

candle, either on its own, or on top of the wooden base.

Discreetly housed within the wooden cylinder is a cylinder

of glass. In conjunction with the bronze candleholder,

the slender glass tube becomes part of a contemporary

reworking of the traditional storm lantern.

This bronze bowl is a perfect hemisphere. There is no

flatness on the base to disrupt the smooth curve of the

profile, but the bowl can still sit perfectly upright or slightly

tilted, thanks to hidden detailing inside the material.

11objects

Tom DixonBase Light

Tom Dixon is famed for his work with a variety of

metals and his Base Light is a fine example of why his

work is so prized for both residential and commercial

interiors. Clean lines and interesting combinations of

material make this lamp equally at home in spaces large

and small.

The heavily weighted, matte cast iron base is eminently

practical and virtually impossible to tip over. It resists scuffs

and scratches and takes up a small footprint with its square

base and open pyramid sides. The slender stem of the

pole runs straight up to an impressively large shade of

satin-polished spun brass. The striking contrast between

the industrial construction of the black iron and the

warmth of the spun brass gives the Base Lamp just

enough richness to lend elegance to an executive’s office

or an informal family room.

The shade’s highly reflective surface sends out a warm

glow to touch nearby surfaces with a golden haze of

light for reading or relaxing. Dixon’s combination of

industrial construction and warm colours in brushed

finishes creates a rustic yet polished whole that’s pared

down to the essentials. Standing next to a leather chair

or wool sofa, the Base floor light will lend extraordinary

presence to any room.

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