Undercut is a handmade furniture project realized by the industrial designer Uriel Schwartz who suggests a unique combination of the mahogany wood with cast aluminum. The two materials are combined in one piece of furniture without using any connectors or additives. Initially, the model of the piece is made by combining wood with polystyrene foam. Computer Numerical Control cutting machine is used for the finishing of the wood and the legs are manually made from foam. After the pieces of wood and polystyrene foam are made, they are assembled and placed in a sand matrix. In this matrix, molten aluminum is poured.
This will melt and replace the polystyrene foam forming the solid feet of the piece of furniture and connect the piece in its assembly. The design proposed by Uriel Schwartz uses the organic shapes language, avoiding the classical geometry of shapes and leaving room for imperfect and asymmetric characteristics that define the artistic conception of the designer.
“Undercut” is the condition where one has a negative angle in a mould which then makes it difficult to release the model from the mould. Here we use a situation that we would normally try to avoid, in my favour. In this handmade furniture we present the language of organic forms and make place for imperfect and asymmetric features in our artistic perception.
