London Design Festival 2011: here are some photos of a collection of furniture and lighting by industrial designer Benjamin Hubert for Portuguese brand De La Espada, presented at the Tramshed during the London Design Festival.
The project involved working with with hand-turned marble, granite and leather craftsmen from the car industry.
Pieces include a pedestal dining table that’s weighed down by granite balls in a steel cage, a lounge chair with a seat woven from strips of leather and a dining chair with a leather seat strapped over its ash frame.
The Quarry lamps were each carved from a solid block of marble and retain the tool marks inside the cavity.
Since founding his studio in 2007, Hubert has designed pieces for brands including Casamania, Zero, Örsjö Belysning, Viaduct, Decode, De Vorm, Heals, Blå Station and more, but this is the first time he’s been invited to design a complete collection.
See all our stories about Benjamin Hubert here and watch interviews we filmed with him in Milan and in Cologne on Dezeen Screen.
Tramshed was part of Shoreditch Design Triangle.
See all our stories about the London Design Festival here.
Here’s some more information from Benjamin Hubert:
Benjamin Hubert x De La Espada
The collaboration between Benjamin Hubert and De La Espada presented the opportunity to develop a range of interior products utilising the skills and knowledge of artisan craftsmen, affording fewer compromises than more industrialised projects.
This allowed for greater exploration in the handmade and manipulation of natural materials with greater emphasis on quality.
The result is a range of crafted products with an industrial aesthetic, made utilising tactile materials where the hand of the maker can still be seen and valued.
This is embodied in hand-turned marble with the organic marks of the cutting tool clearly visible, woven automotive leather with hand-stitching and overt timber joinery detailing.
The range has an industrial, minimal language with a playful look at functionality, honest construction and engaging materiality.
Above: Cargo. Perforated automotive leather, ash, steel fixings. A leather panelled dining/occasional chair. Hand-crafted self-supporting leather panels attach to a light Ash timber frame with mechanical fixing. Cargo is inspired by the automotive industry’s use of leather, specifically in convertible soft tops with pronounced fixing details and tailored panels.
Above and below: Quarry. Marble, acrylic, LED. Hand-turned, thin-walled marble pendant lights with roughly finished interior, to add texture and describe the story of stone production.
Quarry utilises the marble’s translucent properties to diffuse the light and reveal its veining.
The traditional material is offset by the use of an LED, which allows the large hand-turned internal cavity to remain open and uncluttered.
The interior surface is reminiscent of the first cut by renaissance sculptors to rough out a form.
AKFD manage the factories the lamps are produced in, ensuring fair working terms, and actively pushes for safer working conditions.
Below: Perforated automotive leather, steel. A hand-woven leather lounge chair with stitched automotive leather and a leather-wrapped steel frame
This large lounge chair is inspired by the small ‘coracle’ boats traditionally used in Wales since the Bronze Age, with its woven construction used to support the user.
The crafted ‘tri weave’ is complemented by a leather wrapped steel frame with industrial reference points found in bike handles, creating a tactile touch point for the chair.
Below: Gabion. Ash, powder-coated steel, granite. A pedestal dining table with a metal cage base containing the ballast that creates the structures stability.
Subverting the idea of traditionally hiding ballast in pedestal tables, most commonly sandbags, the dining table utilises an overt granite ballast as its focal point within a steel frame with ash surface.
Below: Silo. Granite, Ash. Turned Portuguese granite storage/side table for magazines, soft goods etc finished with an ash surface.
Inspired by grain storage devices with its crafted stone aesthetic, the Silo tables utilise the space normally reserved for a solid base or table legs, as storage. The tables’ focal point is created by a graphic interpretation of a traditional grip feature cut into the timber surface.
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