Glass Vessels of Le Corbusier

​​​​​​Jonah Takagi references one of the world’s most distinguishable structures, Le Corbusier’s 1952 brutalist Unité D’habitation in Marseille, France in his latest glass collection called The Brut Vessels.

​​​Over the past few years, Takagi has been collaborating with CIRVA (Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques) to create the brut vessels, a colored glass collection that references French brutalism presented during Paris Design Week.

​​​Working closely with the artists and technicians at CIRVA, each piece begins with a one-off mold created from precisely machined refractory bricks and ceramic sheets. Hot glass blown into the mold and allowed to cool slightly before the form is dismantled, liberating the blown glass vessel from its confines. Once out, the glass vessels boast a unique and colorful appearance.

​​​“But it was also that each mold was different and unique. If a glass-blower is blowing into the same exact mold, after the first couple of tries, they’ll know how much glass to pick up, how hot it needs to be, whether to pre-heat the mold. It’s very repeatable. But because each of the molds I was making was slightly different -different undercuts, different volumes- it was difficult for them to figure out. With each mold, it was like the first time every time.” says Tagaki.

​​​Photography: © Jonah Takagi