Speakers

Object Density is a design studio established by Nicola Charlesworth and Kim Stanek. Founded in Eindhoven (NL) in 2019 they create artistic objects of use, drawing upon research and cultural narrative to communicate values of sustainability and community. Often integrating waste materials, they seek to reinstate value through conscious process and material decontextualisation.

Proportions of Space

Proportions of Space is a collection of tables that explores our relationship to the different landscapes within the Netherlands. Through an analysis of selected locations determining – forms, relationships, patterns, textures, dimensions and experience, this collection seeks to capture the intangible feelings that a space evokes. 

Reflecting upon the pervasive tension between the built and natural environment, we see clusters of offset planes – flat volumes that extend on different axes as one moves from space to space. This seemingly modular organisation of space is shared between the natural and the built landscape, expressed through the assembled forms that create this collection. 

The glazes developed for this collection make use of ‘Glass fines’, a waste by-product of the glass recycling industry identified by Dr. Stefan Lie of UTS. Small pieces of clear and coloured glass that cannot be sorted or effectively recycled are combined and crushed, and deemed impure and unpredictable to mass manufacturers. We have displaced the virgin glass typically found in ceramic glazes with Glass fines in an effort to give value back to this material and show its potential for further use. A colour palette was developed to reflect the landscapes that resonated through our process, while the grain and variation of the waste material brings a natural texture to the pieces. 

The pieces shown have been bonded together to form beautiful and durable additions to any space as coffee tables and side tables. Each piece is an assemblage of two different sized blocks, either large or small, arranged and oriented to develop different surface patterns. The modular nature of this collection allows us to endlessly reconfigure the individual blocks for both decorative facades and functional components of spaces, being able to achieve table, bar and counter heights, giving opportunity for scalability and commercialisation all whilst using only two different molds for production. 

“When a person attempts to determine his relationship to a space, he attempts to understand that which is outside his own body, he attempts to understand existence beyond the material” — Ai Weiwei