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Omer Arbel’s 75.9 house uses poured concrete to create lily pad columns

Field Notes

Omer Arbel’s 75.9 house uses poured concrete to create lily pad columns

(Fahim Kassam/Courtesy Bocci)

The Canadian designer Omer Arbel has a thing for archaeology, so his approach to a brand new home in Vancouver’s countryside was inevitably going to feel more activated than a usual white box. The clients had chosen an expansive site with truly tabula rasa potential, but their selection of Arbel meant that they embarked on a journey of material exploration.

Notably, the designer exhibited during London Design Week 2022, turning the courtyard of the V&A Museum into an experimental glassblowing studio. The archeological process was on full display there: the designer would melt down and disassemble antiquities into their essential elements to create one-of-a-kind contemporary objects that celebrated the old while ushering in a new future.

Arbel’s acceptance of this domestic commission marked a striking departure from object-scale works into the realm of architecture and space. “For 15 years, we’ve developed a method of working with materials at the scale of an object,” said Arbel. “This is the first project where we’ve had the opportunity of trying that same methodology at the scale of architecture.”

Read more on aninteriormag.com.

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