Bel Williams – 'Bloc 03' Floor Light, 2024

The Bloc series is an exploration into repurposed aluminium extrusions. Extrusions are highly used across architecture, manufacturing and transport and are commonly available as smaller selection offcuts. The series includes table and wall lights made from extruded intercooler pipes salvaged from an old car engine (old scrap). With minimal material manipulation, the integrity of the former engine pipes remains a conscious and prominent design feature, and the pipes have been used as the shades for each light.

The shades sit balanced across square extrusions, salvaged from aluminium manufacturing offcuts (new scrap), to offer a soft-sharp irregularity between angular and curved. The composition of each light is inspired by the act of arranging things, finding points of balance and anchorage, and sit slightly off-kilter as if resting for a moment to provide a diffused illumination. The series speaks to the value in using materials that have already lived a life and how through design, we can re-embed a new value into something that would otherwise be discarded. The lights demonstrate how easily virgin material can be swapped out for scrap while still achieving a high level of finish.