CREATIVE COOKING
A hobby shapes the design process.
Experimenting with ingredients. Is your dish taking a different turn? No problem: simply adapt the ingredients or the preparation. Ultimately, it all boils down to orange: a question of taste and that symbolic dose of optimism, creativity and spontaneity. And coincidentally also the colour of molten metal, the grey basic component.
Studi0range is Willem de Roo. He has a fascination for art and fashion. So did he opt to become an artist or fashion designer? No, that’s not how things turned out. He chose to translate fashion attitudes into furniture. He also enjoys creative cooking for and with friends. Delicious improvisation. And his designs are developed in the same way. The experimental and functional nature of his work is striking. He is driven by the question of how to retain classic patterns whilst also innovating.
His preferred starting point is metal, sandblasted metal in particular. ‘Because its matte allure, and tactile, granular surface texture is both handsome and powerful!’ It’s then that the other — experimental — materials come into play.
The TC (Table Cloth) series is inspired by the traditional Parisian bistro table and Maison Margiela with its rebellious design concepts.
It all starts with the deconstruction and reconstruction of an existing design into a functionally autonomous design. This – and more – is what Willem has done with the bistro table. The classic bistro tablecloth is not spread over the table, because it is clamped into the table. The fabric is embedded in a capsule of ecological resin: a cocktail of gelatine and glycerine. ‘I experimented until I found the correct proportions for the desired sturdiness.’ The colour recipe was part of the experiment: which biological materials, cooking time and temperature deliver the correct pigment. Willem has tried everything, from red onion skins to avocados, beetroot and more. It ended up being coffee.
The draping of the tablecloth is inspired by Maison Margiela’s 3-packs: three crumpled t-shirts in a vacuum-packed plastic bag. The wrinkled tablecloth looks like it’s simply been thrown on, falling nonchalantly with irregular folds over the edge. It is tightly ‘sealed’ in the eco resin, in the table. The TC floor and table lamp follow the same recipe.
Willem has translated his design vision into the Studi0range house style colours: the calming shades of grey versus the energetic orange that matches the colour code #FF5000. And would you believe it: that turns out to also be the colour of molten metal. In this way everything comes together.
