Eucalyptus Coffee Table

This Coffee Table is a truly unique piece made from cast aluminum and wood. The negative factor of burnt wood is transformed into aesthetic and emotional value by preservation of the natural form of the tree trunk. The general, squared form intensifies the artificial feeling, and at the same time keeps the memory of the material.

The Wood Casting™ pieces are the signature collection of Hilla Shamia Design Studio. They exhibit a unique combination between two materials, using a completely new technology, to create a perfect balance between a natural resource and an industrial matter.

Shamia first started working with this unique technology of casting metal into wood in 2012, as part of her final project in the Department of Industrial Design in Holon Institute of Technology. Her initial thought and obsession were the connection made between two materials, without any mediating factor, as well as the contrast between two very different substances.

Wood Casting™ involves the use of whole tree trunks of mostly local trees. The wood is cut up lengthwise and inserted into a mold, which defines the furniture’s frame and legs. The metal is then poured over the wood. The casting process is like a drama, accompanied by high heat, flames, and smoke.

This drama produces a third material– the coal. The charcoaled strip functions as a line drawn in the meeting point between the two materials, delineating and separating between them. The merging outlines of the materials provide evidence of the leaking aluminum and the carbonization of the wood, maintaining a sense of flow even when the two materials are forever frozen.

The Wood Casting™ pieces demonstrate a perfect balance between two contrasting materials. Wood is an organic material, which echoes a sense of warmth, heaviness and delicateness. Metal, on the other hand, is very durable and strong, and is characterized by a sense of industriality, coldness, and lightness.

Like in nature, each final product is unique. No two pieces of Wood Casting™ are identical, due to the production process, in which the mold is broken down. The incompleteness and randomness give the product its aesthetic value. As in nature, the processes are exposed, but still the results are surprising.