LAVA FLOW

Melting moments with Chilean design studio GT2P as it takes volcanic rock to new extremes

- DEYAN SUDJIC

Design

Unique works created by GT2P in which lava stone from Chilean volcanoes is variously worked before being fired in a kiln. From left, ’Remolten N1: Monolita Chair 15’, 2019; ‘Remolten N2: Self Organization Mirror’, 2019; ‘Remolten N3: Dysgraphia Rock 3D-printed Vase’, 2020, and ‘Remolten N1: Revolution Coffee Table’, 2018; ‘Remolten N1: Monolita Side Table 15’, 2020; and ‘Remolten N1: Monolita Shelf/Screen 10’, 2020

What makes the work of the Chilean collective G2TP stand out is its deft ability to play at opposite ends of the design spectrum at the same time. Its members are rooted in the specifics of a very particular place, but equally part of the global conversation. They are fascinated by digital techniques, but also by craft skills. They share a communal identity, but they each make a different contribution to it.

GT2P is based in Santiago, which is about as far from the conventional centres of the design world as you can get, but the collective has shown in New York with Friedman Benda, in Melbourne at the National Gallery of Victoria, at Milan Design Week, and in London, where the Design Museum has GT2P’s ‘Suple’ bench in its garden. ‘Supple’ in Chilean slang for ‘workaround’, or makeshift. The core of the bench is a cast-bronze five-way joint that connects three vertical and two horizontal timber beams, one of them supported by a piece of rock, to create a stable seat with a mix of rough and smooth, formal and informal.