A chunky rough-hewn coffee table made from discarded quarry sandstone is among a selection of furniture pieces by designer Carsten in der Elst, currently on display at Stockholm Design Week.
Called Greywacke Offcut Collection, the furniture by In der Elst is on show at the Stockholm Furniture Fair as part of the city's design week.
Carsten In der Elst designed rugged furniture from surplus German sandstone
In der Elst sources materials that are industrial byproducts, which he handcrafts into amorphous furniture.
For his most recent collection, the Cologne-based designer visited a quarry in Lindlar in western Germany, where he salvaged large slabs of Lindlar Greywacke ? a variety of hard and dark sandstone ? that would've otherwise been waste material. The Greywacke Offcut Collection includes a chunky floor lamp
"It's a very hands-on approach, so I went to the quarries myself and selected these things," he told Dezeen at the fair.
One piece is a modular coffee table made up of three jagged hunks of dark-hued stone. These were left largely untouched except for a flat tabletop, which was sanded down.
A textured bench also features at the fair
"You can see that the elements of the objects are completely unchanged in their dimensions," said In der Elst, who explained that the furniture was created to evoke the texture and materiality of large rocks.
"The key is to patiently search for the right one among the accumulated offcuts," continued the desig...