Changing Vase by Dirk Vander Kooij
Updated: Jan 29, 2020
Designer and creator Dirk Vander Kooij is a true craftsman although most of the things he produces are actually not made by hand. In fact, he is a new kind of craftsman, one who embraces technology and machines. Kooij built his own 3D printer in a period of one year and a half and graduated cum laude from the Design Academy.
Dirk made a flying start as the creator of the first worldwide robot which can extrude furniture pieces from 100% recycled material. With his work he proves that we have a wrong image of plastic as a cheap and breakable material. “It is actually durable, beautiful and elastic. I can make objects, unknown as plastic ones”, he says. With the help of a robot, layer by layer built up lines structure, it results in products that range from colorful, poetical and funny to strong printed synthetic vases, chairs, tables and lamps.
For Kooij, procedures to get into a new product are as important as the final product itself. In his work, Dirk combines tradition and technology; mixing manual work and digital robot technique every piece of furniture is produced as a special industrial “unicum”. He is not interested in standardization or mass production, but in a way to produce industrial quality products that are actually beautiful without using strict production systems, huge investments in tools and materials and long production lines. In the studio design, creation, improvement count and designing, crafting and perfecting something beautiful is what matters.
His Changing Vase is an extraordinarily designed sculptural vase in four different heights which looks different depending on the angle from which it's looked at. The first series were made out of collected synthetic leftovers, that’s why singular and striking color combinations occur. So each and every produced Changing Vase has its own unforeseen emergence.
