Danish homeware brand Ferm Living has partnered with Norwegian designer Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng to create a wavy aluminium table that debuted during the 3 Days of Design festival.
The Dal table, which can also be used as a bench, was originally carved in wood by Øfstedal Eng but is now produced in sand-casted recycled aluminium.
The shape of the table, which was unveiled at Ferm Living's showroom in Copenhagen by Øfstedal Eng and Ferm Living's founder Trine Andersen, was informed by a mountainside in the Gudbrandsdalen valley, Norway.
"I often take organic silhouettes and shapes that I've seen in nature that fascinate me," Øfstedal Eng told Dezeen.
"I use nature as an inspirational source for all my work, and I was on a trip one day in the mountains and there was almost an organic cave running through them," she added.
"I was mesmerised, so I wanted to capture that and take it further into something functional."
Prototypes of the table originally featured three and four legs, before the collaborators choose to produce it with two.
"Is it a piece of furniture or is it art? We are, of course, a commercial company creating functional pieces, but we love to add a layer of something that isn't commercial; something that is there to create emotion or ask a question," Andersen said.
"We are super inspired by where design and art meet," she added.
The table was made from aluminium to make it more "producible", as the material makes the furniture suitable for both indoor and outdoor use as well as being transportable, according to Andersen.
"It's a material that we believe suits the expression well because it has a little bit of the roughness that I guess you experienced in nature and also since it's sandblasted, it has the texture so it's not just flat and smooth," she said.
The Dal table was sand-casted to maintain the organic shape originally handcrafted by Øfstedal Eng in a time- and cost-efficient way and create minimal waste.
It is cast in three pieces in India due to the volume of scrap aluminium there and the country's sand-casting skill.
"We choose to produce where the raw materials are and where the handcraft is," Andersen explained. "We are so reliant on having skilled producers, using factories that have been in the family for generations."
Referencing the minimal waste in the design process, Andersen added: "there is beauty when economics and sustainability have the same interest, because material is also money."
The Dal table marks Ferm Living and Øfstedal Eng's third collaboration. The designer and brand previously co-created a piece of furniture that can be used as both a stool or side table and a sculptural object.
"I have always been told my objects are too sculptural to be produced," Øfstedal Eng notes, adding that hers and Ferm Living's design processes were compatible.
"We have the same mind mindset around working with responsible materials, working with the organic shapes and tactility," Andersen adds.
The 2023 edition of 3 Days of Design also showcased designer Birgitte Due Madsen, architect Anne Dorthe Vester and curator Henriette Noermark's Kinship exhibition and NINE's inaugural collection of furniture.
The photography is by Finn Christian Peper.
3 Days of Design took place in venues around Copenhagen from 7 to 9 June 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for information, plus a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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