Ex-Lab Stool

The Cloops is a concrete stool cast in a mold of unfired clay, the formwork printed by a robotic-arm clay extruder. The benefit of the process is the clay, drawing moisture from the concrete during the stool pour, can be re-used, taken away easily with the hand once the concrete has hardened. It is a formwork that can be recycled.

The stool gains its aesthetic expression from the ribbed contours of the clay print coils, and by the clay dust nestling in the pores of the concrete. Due to the extruder only being able to print one leg at a time, the four legs are bonded again with wet clay to create the single stool formwork. This process came out of a desire to contrast the simulated precision of 3D printing against the accidentals inherent in hand-making craft.

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