Sight Unseen has a great writeup about Dutch Design Week (October 21-29, 2016). There were many interesting items, but a couple caught my eye.  Created by Studio Ossidiana, these concrete pieces are really special. I love how they elevated this simple material to become beautiful art objects.

The first thing that caught my eye was this ombre concrete sculpture fades through different shades of green.  The effect was created by staining the wet concrete in hues of green and layering them as it was poured.
This is both an art piece as well as a structural element in a garden.  I enjoy imagining all the interesting blooms that I could plant nearby – each perfectly offset with that backdrop. I think I’d have to change it out every year.   I’m imagining the beautiful photography opportunities already!

Studio Ossidiana is an architecture practice based in Rotterdam, Netherlands.  Their founders are Alessandra Covini and Tomas Dirrix.

This particular piece was created with an earth mould.  The concrete was poured into the perfectly shaped vessel of dirt and the end piece has a beautiful rough (dare I say, earthy) texture.

The collection of concrete architectural elements was inspired by reinterpreting the ideas of paradise gardens (In Islamic traditions).   Titled: Petrified Carpets – these types of gardens are usually depicted in Persian carpets.  There are always elements such as enclosure and a surrounding wall, a central fountain and doorways to the garden.  They transposed these ideas into objects and cast them in concrete with differing techniques of color and texture.

See more of Studio Ossidiana’s work here.

See the whole roundup of ideas from Dutch Design Week here.

(Photo by Kyoungtae Kim and via Studio Ossidiana’s instagram)