Studio Uufie captures wood grain in metal for Echo tables
London Design Festival 2016: Canadian studio UUfie has embedded metal into the growth lines of wood to create a set of textured tables (+ slideshow).
The furniture was commissioned by London gallery Matter of Stuff for its Curated by MOS exhibition, which featured work produced in collaboration with Italian manufacturers.
The studio worked with liquid metals, which can be combined with other materials, to create the pieces.
Each of the tables is made from a central section of wood, which tapers out at the edges and blends into metal. Made in three different sizes, each piece rests on slender legs that flare outwards at the bottom.
"It's based on our experience in Italy," said the studio, which has also designed a chair shaped like the fanned tail of a peacock.
"The manufacturer was located by a seaport, and a lot of the colouration and shapes of the tables were influenced by the sunrises, and little stones we found on the beach."
The tables are made in aluminium, copper and brass, and feature contrasting gradients of colour as a result.
"We were trying to push the limits of the structural properties of metal and wood," added the studio. "It's a subtle shape, but it's derived from a droplet of water, so the bottom is slightly curved and narrows in the middle."
UUfie has also completed several architectural projects including a Shanghai boutique and an Ontario medical clinic.
Other pieces in the Curated by MOS exhibition included a set of tables draped in two-dimensional cloth created from marble, and furniture inlaid with patterns of oxidised metal.
The exhibition took place at the ME Hotel during this year's London Design Festival, from 17 to 15 September 2016.