22 November 2011

Klag by Dale Hardiman

Following his success as runner-up at this year's Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards with his Kids' Straw Stool, emerging designer Dale Hardiman has presented his latest design, Klag.

Recently exhibited as part of 'outsideinsideout', RMIT's Associate Degree in Design (Furniture) graduate exhibition, Klag is a 3 legged chair with a simple, organic shape and a concrete-like appearance.

"The material is made by Don Browne (Exile Global Technologies), a materials engineer, and it is made from fly ash, resin and fibreglass, and is called ET-21," Hardiman explains.

"Fly ash is the by-product of burning coal, and there are roughly 1,100,000 tonnes of fly ash in Tarong and Tarong North in Southwest Queensland. As the quantity is still growing, it is a great waste disposal problem in Australia.

"The entire piece is cast. ET-21 is very lightweight, heat-resistant and waterproof."

"Using a material that looks and feels quite similar to concrete, it's interesting to create something with such an organic shape out of material that is so solid and generally not made as a feature of something," Hardiman says.

"The piece was an experiment into a new concrete substitute and its structural ability, and by only allowing it to have 3 legs was to look at the relationship with the all the elements as it is all one piece."