London designer Max Lamb has created an installation of sculptural items made from three-dimensional tiles he developed for Japanese brand Tajimi Custom Tiles.
Tajimi Custom Tiles worked with Lamb to create the tiles, which can be custom made for architects, and an installation of pieces made from them that was displayed in Tokyo.
Lamb decided to produce his tiles using pressure moulding, which creates highly precise shapes, so he could play with the idea of making the seemingly two-dimensional tiles more three-dimensional.
Lamb wanted to create three-dimensional tiles
"Tiles are always used in the third dimension ? even though they're seemingly superficial, like a flat surface on a floor," Lamb told Dezeen.
"But the object that they're being used on is three-dimensional. And so I thought: what if my tile is two-dimensional, but can wrap up onto the wall"" he added. "Suddenly there's a change of direction. I was focusing on those changes ? how do I transition between a plane on the x-axis first, onto a plane on the y-axis""
A factory visit informed Lamb's sculptural tile designs
While these initial designs were a way to play with the preconceived notions of how tiles are used and create playful shapes, the tiles also have a practical application. So far, Lamb has used them in his own bathroom as well as for the bathroom of art gallery Salon 94 in New York.
"I'm having a lot of fun designing bathrooms using those tiles as a bu...