UC163
crushed oyster shells & reclaimed old oak base
170x40x40 cm
Year built
2026
Function
Aux Table
Status
Available
Oyster shells are made of proteins and calcium carbonate — the same compounds found in marble and other stones we have long considered noble materials. We had simply never thought to use them.
We were designing custom furniture at a three-Michelin-star restaurant when a kitchen assistant walking past with a box of empty shells headed for the bin caught our attention and changed that.
Several experimental rounds later, we had a material. From a distance, UC163 reads as a solid mineral mass — clearly stone, clearly heavy.
Then you start doing the mental arithmetic on the weight and something doesn't add up. You move closer. A greenish tint here, a shape that doesn't quite fit there. And then it clicks: those are shells.
The illusion holds because of an intelligent hollow interior — without it, a piece this size in solid stone, or even in solid shells, would be entirely impractical. The form is generous, the presence monumental, the weight manageable.
The recovered oak base emerges through a cylindrical opening in the shell surface — a quiet reminder that beneath the mineral mass, there is wood.
