Hasta La Ideas

This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to Sam Hecht of Industrial Facility.

Name: Benjamin Hubert

Occupation: Industrial designer

Location: London

Current projects: Most things we can’t talk about, but we’re working on everything from furniture and lighting to smaller desktop objects and interiors and installations and wallcoverings. It’s a very large range.

Mission: To create objects that solve problems and are innovative.

Launched during last September’s London Design Festival, Ripple is the world’s lightest timber table—it weighs only 9 kilograms, or just under 20 pounds.

Ripple is made by corrugating plywood through pressure lamination, a process developed by Hubert with the Canadian manufacturer Corelam.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? When I was 18. It was a decision at school to continue studying design rather than art, and I made it by choosing a course at university in design.

Education: I studied industrial design and technology at Loughborough University.

First design job: Being a design intern at a company called DCA

Who is your design hero? I don’t really think about things like that. We tend to think about things outside of our industry, and we don’t focus too heavily on what people have done and what they’re doing. So I wouldn’t say we have a hero.

Hubert’s new Pelt collection for De La Espada includes a chair, stools, and a shelving system, all of which feature a thin plywood shell wrapped around a solid ash frame.

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