Fort Standard’s aluminium Standing Bowls are raised on slim angular fins that reference the planar supports used to elevate buildings above the ground .
Brooklyn-based studio Fort Standard created the range of oblong and circular bowls in three finishes: copper-plated, or powder-coated in pastel green or pink.
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The piloti-style legs are a product of the aluminium casting process used to form the bowls, with each leg the a result of a gate – the channel used to convey molten aluminium to the mould.
“Although there are literal leads from poured concrete foundations and buttress-type forms designed to support large structures, the architectural reference also helps explain the structural relationship between material process and the function of the object,” said Fort Standard designers Gregory Buntain and Ian Collings.
The bowls come in two sizes and shapes: a small hemisphere with a 15-centimetre diameter and a larger 38-centimetre-long oval-shaped bowl. The smaller bowl appears to be sunk into a cross-shaped base, while the oblong bowl sits on a row of three fins that curve around its base.
“The planar feet not only give rise to the bowl, but they are an expression of the minimum manufacturing constraints of the casting process,” the designers told Dezeen.
The light-weight aluminium bowls are sand-cast in a Pennsylvanian foundry, which specialises in the production of industrial parts, and hand-finished at the duo’s Brooklyn studio.
“The finishing processes are rough and crude so we have them ship us the de-gated forms to our studio where we can more carefully remove excess flashing and prep for powder coating or plating, which is also done here in Brooklyn,” they said.
The three coloured coatings are added to make the bowls hygienic for storing and serving food.
“Most of the products in our home collection are simply natural materials, [but] in this case the cast texture is harder to clean so we offer them coated with a food grade powder coat. The copper-plating is another material that has the same effect – actually an even better effect,” they added.
The high-shine copper-plated bowls are left untreated to allow a natural patina to develop over time.
“When we were going through the process of selecting the colours, we chose colours that we found exciting but also felt comfortable living with in a home setting,” said the designers.
Standing Bowls were displayed during last month’s London Design Festival, as part of the Simplified Beauty exhibition at SCP East in Shoreditch.
