New York designers Chen Chen and Kai Williams have created a pair of plant pots made entirely from stoneware, with hidden saucers at their bases.
Each Stacking Planter comprises a series of stackable units with rounded edges. Designed by the Brooklyn studio set up by Pratt Institute graduates Chen Chen & Kai Williams, the planters are made of ceramic, with an unglazed exterior and glazed interior.
Because of their high firing temperature, the stoneware pots are impermeable to liquids even without glazing. However, the interiors are glazed to make them resistant to dirt and staining.
The planters integrate the planter and the saucer into one symmetrical volume. Its stackable design conceals the saucer in the bottom ring.
"The shapes are inspired by the beautiful designs of high-voltage ceramic insulators found on power lines," said the designers.
The top unit has four draining holes, allowing water to drip down through the roots and seep into the lower plate.
"We love that they are a purely functional object that has an ornate form and they are rarely noticed but hidden in plain sight," said the designers.
The product come in two sizes, tall and short, which are eight inches (20 centimetres) and four inches (10 centimetres) tall.
Before designing the Stackable Planters, the studio had created cement planters cast from moulds of fruits and vegetables.
"We were often asked if we made a saucer that went with these planters," said Chen. "After a few years of racking our brains for a design that didn't feel like an afterthought, we decided to design something from scratch that included the saucer holistically from inception."
"We were producing and selling the Stacking Planters ourselves for the last year and a half, but we've licensed the design to Areaware," he added.
Other planters include an in-home greenhouse unit by Bangkok studio Atelier 2+, a series of ceramic pots with ridged edges by Danish architecture firm COBE, and white porcelain planters raised on thin legs by Dutch designer Tim van de Weerd.