Raw power: Ceramic form follows process in Milan

Milan – Dutch designer Floris Wubben gave LS:N Global a live demonstration of his industrial clay-pressing machine, the heavy tool he uses to create his primitive Pressed vessels, currently being presented at Spazio Rossana Orlandi for Milan Design Week.

Heaving wet clay on to a large machine, Wubben secures a circular metal template and then slowly cranks down a heavy mould by hand. The machine presses on the thick clay, cutting crudely through the dense material, while a lever raises a platform that forces the clay through the mould and into the shape of a tall vessel. This is then fired and glazed.

‘When there is a human behind the manual making-process of a product, it has a very different feel from that of a digitised system, such as 3D printing for example,’ Wubben tells LS:N Global. ‘These pieces are all unique and there is a pleasing rawness and roughness about them that can’t be reproduced.’

Ceramic designers continue to show an interest in producing rough, unfinished and crude forms, while letting the production process define the final result of a product. For more examples, see LS:N Global’s "Pop Primitive.

design direction from Design Miami 2013.