A new generation of designers is reinventing aluminium, a material that is cheap, abundant and relatively easy to work with, for experimental one-off furniture designs.
One of the world's most common materials, aluminium emerged as a new focus for young designers at the Collectible art and design fair in Brussels back in March.
London-based MDR Gallery presented the Alu! exhibition featuring work by Studio Vit, Sigve Knutson, Silo Studio, and Bram Vanderbeke and Wendy Andreu.
The show, currently on view in London, highlights different techniques that can be used on the metal, including hammering, casting, hand-polishing, spinning and laser cutting.
Studio Furthermore uses aluminium to create its lunar-inspired Moon Rock furniture
"We noticed that lots of the younger designers that we work with were starting to work with it, but what interested me was how differently they were all manipulating it," said Laura Houseley, founder of MDR Gallery and Modern Design Review magazine. "These really expressive designers with signature aesthetics were all making aluminium do something different for them," she said. "They're making it more desirable."
"Aluminium has a lot of potential"
Elsewhere at the fair, London-based Studio Furthermore showed its Moon Rock furniture collection, using blocks of holey aluminium as a stand-in for an imagined lunar material that designers might have access to in the future.
Belgian designer Nicolas Erauw's cast-al...