WALLS & BRICKS DESIGN RESEARCH EXHIBITION

Walls

A growing interest in architecture and design as a spatial activity prompted this exploration into micro-architecture. Walls is not a work of product design, nor is it architecture, it sits somewhere in between these two activities. When we move to a new apartment or home, there is often the need to tear down a wall or erect a new one. The building industry provides us with drab and soulless walls made of sheet rock and framing, which are inevitably painted white, off-white or some shade of grey. The idea behind walls was to give an alternative to the uninspired variety of wall.  We used marble and colored glass because they are materials that are capable of transforming the tone of a space. The marble sheet hides a seated person and blocks their vista, while the glass sheet reaches standing height, and filters the light that passes through it while partially masking sound.

Bricks

Modern furniture construction normally involves joints, structural connections, and the assumption that things should be lightweight. People normally assume that furniture is somewhat delicate, easily scratched, not something on which to put your feet, not something to be jumped on by children. The idea with Brick was to do something that went against all of these assumptions. Brick is made from recycled car tires, has no joints, is very heavy, can be jumped on, and is virtually impossible to scratch. Because of the weight of the material, it made sense to make a small unit that could be carried by a single person, so the Brick was developed as a raw material for furniture construction, rather than a piece of furniture itself.