Designing with aluminium
June 2018
From his early welded chairs to our latest IKEA bed / sofa hack, Tom has a wealth of experience designing furniture and objects using metals.
Join Tom Dixon as he discusses designing with aluminium and designing for mass production.
Monday 4th June 2018 - 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM BST
Exploring the materiality, functionality and manufacturing process - our latest and Red Dot Award winning design is made with aluminium in partnership with IKEA and Norwegian aluminium manufacturer Hydro.
We were fascinated by industrial production and interested in the way that larger pieces of furniture are still made using fairly primitive manufacturing techniques. We talked about many ways of making a longer lasting, more sustainable and adaptable piece of furniture which is why we used aluminium.
The design process incorporated a lot of discussion about how people's domestic lives are transforming with smaller spaces, more moving home in a lifetime and more flexibility needed from more flexible human relationships.
Aluminium is the right material for DELAKTIG because it is light and strong, and because adding features is easy once the metal has been extruded into a profile.
Although it takes a lot of energy to extract aluminium, once it's in circulation it can be recycled relatively easily. And with DELAKTIG we have created a product platform based on these circular-economic principles - modular furniture that can be disassembled and rearranged into completely different pieces of furniture.
Join Tom Dixon as he discusses designing with aluminium and designing for mass production.
Monday 4th June 2018 - 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM BST
“I would hope to see the bed or sofa in 20 years being used in a completely unexpected functionality – one that I did not predict myself in the first place. That would be success,” - Tom Dixon.
