Gujarat based architect Manoj Patel has chosen to work with clay roof tiles to create stunning pieces of furniture. “The furniture pieces made from these materials become usable only after sunset when there is no direct sunlight. Else, sitting on these is next to impossible. This was the problem that we wanted to address when we started working with materials like clay and wood that are non-conductors,” Manoj Patel said.
Clay has been used as a construction material for centuries. Its robustness and sturdiness ensure that the lifespan of the construction lasts for over a century. While typically clay has been used to tile the roof, pottery and floor tiles, Manoj is looking at ways of using this durable material to make furniture pieces.
Manoj and his team transformed the existing profiles of numerous clay tiles into playful optical illusions that resemble a natural volumetric mass, to form outdoor chairs and benches as a backdrop against rustic spaces. “We started work on this a while ago but in the last six months we gave the idea a shape.While using clay does help in bringing down the indoor temperature, in some of the work we have undertaken the clients have completely done away with the use of air-conditioning as well,” he says.
The advantage of using clay to make furniture and use it in summers is that it allows the surface to remain cool. So far, the team has developed a table top, stools and various kinds of surfaces as well. “This is an all-season material and can comfortably be used even through monsoon season,” he says. It is also cost-effective and Manoj says that one tile costs between Rs 5 to Rs 8. On average 200 tiles are used for a piece of furniture, which will cost under Rs 2,000.
“The main thing in all of this is the craftwork that the artisans bring in,” he says. While the firm is not commercially selling these pieces of furniture they are working with other design and architectural firms who use these furniture pieces in their work. “We are not looking at any sort of mass production of these pieces,” Manoj added.
Even though clay as a material has been used in construction for decades now, using it to make furniture was new and challenging, says Manoj. “Making a simple stool turned out to be rather challenging. The geometry and pattern of the stool were difficult to get right. A simple task of getting the corners aligned turned out to be rather laborious,” he stated.