ten thousand tons of pressure…

26th June 2012

By Ben Flannaghan

 

This bench is truly unique is its form, with the transition from a machine constrained structure into an organic and beautiful end. Heatherwick studio spent 18 years finding a way of creating this once piece extruded bench, which needed an aluminium extruder big enough and tough enough to exert 10,000 tons of pressure. Like a squeezed tube of toothpaste the start and end are often misshapen. Instead of discarding these unwanted imperfections the studio has manipulated them to become it’s attraction.

You can find out more about the work from Heatherwick Studios at the V&A, where their exhibition runs until the 30th September.