Korean designer and creator Jeonghwa Seo continues his investigations into the relationships between contrasting materials in his newest project, Aged Blocks. The series includes a range of stools and side-tables created by placing aged blocks of found wood on bases of brass and cast aluminum.
Designed by Jeonghwa Seo for Korean furniture brand hue, the series consists of four goose and three maple blocks that have been aged for roughly ten years before being set on their metal structures. Texturally, the natural imperfections of the wood such as knots and holes have been preserved, lending to the tactile and multi-tonal diversity of the pieces and creating an interesting dialogue between the two materials. While the base consists of smooth, clean lines and curved corners, the hewn wood of the top is inevitably shaped by natural processes.
The wood is sculpted to varying degrees throughout the series — the human hand is especially evident in instances where the table top becomes an almost perfect rectangular cuboid. The Aged Blocks range challenges the concept of ‘found’ materials, and questions the point at which human intervention rids a material of its natural temperament altogether. When placed on top of their brass supports, the smooth uninterrupted surface of the cuboid seems as artificial as its metal counterpart.