Daniel Rohr

Daniel Rohr has taken the most dramatic change of direction with his colander tables, and it has thrown me a little. I remember seeing his clamp series a few years ago, an interesting re-purposing of clamps into shelf supports, which also illustrated the process of construction. All very real, accessible and educational. So, the (Mark Newson's 'Event Horizon' inspired) table, being made out of nearly half a ton of Aluminium was a suprise, the total antithesis of the low tech stuff that came before. 

Firstly, i like the object on many levels, the precision, the polished surface and of course; the shadow it creates, although the legs suffer from a lack of attention compared with the top. Then I starting thinking about the material costs, surely it must be a fortune, but at current prices the metal would cost £700, probably cheaper than some top quality english oak to make a dining table of the same size. Then there is the construction; once the CAD drawing is fully developed, they can be turned out easily, with the obvious CNC time and tooling costs. (You can watch a construction video here). And what about  the wastage? as I am guessing the table weighs about a fifth of the weight of the initial materials, but Aluminium is easy to recycle too, and I really hope Rohr addresses this. These objects are also going to last a very, very long time! So i tried to find out how much they sell for,  and i did not have much joy, so i think we can presume they are a small fortune.

To be honest, i would also like the block of aluminium just as it is, there is something very beautiful about it in that form.