Due to recent demand, the studio has been working to develop pieces from the Evolution series that can live outside. Originally, the pieces were finished in specialized paper-mache, which though surprisingly durable, perhaps wouldn’t have lasted outside forever. So the challenge was to create a material that could be applied in a similar way, but that would withstand extreme weather conditions.

We decided to experiment with a particular concrete that had quite a strong greyish colour, so achieving the colour range we wanted was difficult. However after much testing, we are pretty confident that the final material will survive the winter! Getting a result has been particularly interesting for us because while the material is concrete based, we can still apply it to a structure in the same way we would paper-mache. Applied to a larger structure, it has a stone-like quality and although obviously concrete, the forms look unusually hand sculpted for concrete.

Original Paper-Mache tests

Early Tests with Concrete

Larger Test Piece with different textures

Detail of test with steel Meshing