Liquid Geology: CAN’s Experimental Material Research Launches a Debut Table Collection.

London-based architecture studio CAN has launched Liquid Geology, a collection of tables continuing the practices’ experimental research into innovative material use in unexpected contexts. The studio explores the idea of contrast through scale, texture and materiality.

The collection was inspired by rugged coastal scenery, underwater deep sea landscapes and Claude Monet’s 1880s paintings of sunrise and sunset on the River Thames. The design team drew on the rich detailing and colouring of the impressionists’ work alongside the practices’ own ongoing research into geographic contexts to arrive at furniture with an otherworldly feel.

The series features a dining, coffee and side table characterised by chunky rubber-coated bases and slimline, steel enamel tops. The steel is hand-cut and lightly bent to form a soft lip around the edge. The tabletops are coated with rich blue, green or orange enamel and fired in a kiln at 820 degrees Celsius, before being hand splattered in a contrasting tone and re-fired.

The rough, craggy bases are coated in ‘rubber rock’, a unique material composition of recycled rubber chips and resin developed by CAN whilst researching alternative material uses in furniture production. Each base, which varies in size and form, is hand cast and coated in deep gloss paint to enhance the texture.

CAN founder and Director Mat Barnes elaborates “Liquid Geology is the culmination of our research into underutilised materials to create hyperreal spaces and products. The distorted scale of the super thin steel on chunky bases hints at looking through the tables through a watery lens, or a cross-section of a mountainous lake.”

The project exemplifies CAN’s imaginative approach to spatial and product design, influenced by kaleidoscopic colours, classical art, geography, pop culture, music and film. See more at can-site.co.uk.

Related: Batch Collection by Mitre & Mondays.

[Images courtesy of CAN. Photography by Felix Speller.]