Gritty Glass: internal textures bring movement to glass

(Web article written for Clippings)

Glass is interesting again: furniture and lighting designers play with the movement, depth and luminescent colour that come from the material’s transparency.

These pieces exploit the structural properties of glass – bending, draping or pressing thick sheets of the material into shape. Some designers are producing precisely engineered pieces with crisp junctions and clean lines, while others showcase the material’s liquid behaviour, celebrating the bubbles and flows that come from melting, pouring and moulding processes. All of them play with movement, depth and luminescence.

Layering up textured glass in a moire effect lends a heightened sense of movement.

Munich designer Stefan Diez collaborated with German bathroom furniture specialist Burgbad to create a series of modular bathroom furniture made from coloured glass. The single sheets come either completely sleek or with a ribbed texture.

Image: Burgbad/Gerhardt Kellermann

German brand Pulpo worked with designer Sebastian Herkner to create the Bent floor lamp. The piece stands out with its thick shields of fluted glass that diffuse LED panels of light.

Image: Pulpo/Thomas Wiuf Schwartz

Swedish design duo Färg & Blanche experimented with the process of glass moulding and came up with the Knäckebröd lamp. Inspired by the famous Scandinavian crisp bread, they recreated its texture in glass plates which they slid on a slim lighting rod.

Image: Färg & Blanche

Danish brand &tradition has launched the Blown table lamp with a bubbly glass shade fixed to a veiny marble base created by London designer Samuel Wilkinson. Switched on, the lamp casts a kaleidoscopic play of light and shadow.

Image: &tradition

Inspired by melting glass, Japanese designer Oki Sato from Nendo wanted to allow the natural drape of the fluid material to dictate the form of the Melt table, which is produced by WonderGlass.

Image: Akihiro Yoshida for Nendo

A minimalist design, this daybed by Studio Dessuant Bone stands out with its alluring combination of materials. The four cylindrical feet and the headrest are made from solid aluminium, while the flat surface is made from a single rectangular glass sheet.

Image: Studio Dessuant Bone

We also see structured glass coming through in recent interior projects, including this Berlin pharmacy designed by Studio Aisslinger where glass bricks are used to create transluscent walls in a nod back to ’60s suburbia.

Image: Uwe Spoering. Courtesy of Studio Aisslinger

Ribbed glass refracts coloured gradients in the Fluted side table created by Bangkok design practice Thinkk Studio, shifting and sparkling in various nuances as you move around it.

Image: Thinkk Studio

German designer Sebastian Herkner has placed a steel table top over three tubular glass legs in his latest side table, named Echino, for Italian brand Zanotta.

Image: Zanotta

Renowned designers Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec have created a graphic set of translucent ribbed glass screens called Rayures for Italian brand Glas Italia. They come in warm tones of yellow and lilac or a cool anthracite, gently blurring the objects behind them.

Image: Claire Lavabre for Glas Italia