UC24

In 1750, construction began on what would become the British Embassy on Calle Sagasta 1, Cádiz — a building that witnessed the Peninsular War firsthand, its first ambassador the brother of the Duke of Wellington. Two and a half centuries later, when the building was converted into a boutique hotel, dozens of its original structural beams were pulled out for rubble.

We were there.

The beams were massive, and we resisted the temptation to make megalithic or overtly structural pieces. Instead we modelled forms in clay first, letting shape lead rather than construction logic. What emerged were rounder, more sculptural silhouettes than anything we had made before — a formal language that still runs through much of what we make today. We named the series VARRO, after the clay.

UC24 was originally conceived as one leg of a single monumental table alongside UC23. The proportions looked right on paper. Built in full scale from timber that had held up a building for 275 years, the physical presence was something else entirely — more oversize than the drawing had suggested. We split them and let each become its own piece.

UC24 became a near-circular top on a single central pedestal, with a hole bored clean through its massive central body from side to side. A piece that looks like a toy. That tension is exactly what VARRO is about.