Steel That Was Inflated, Not Carved

|Archicomma
Two thin sheets welded together and blown up with compressed air. The process decides the form, so no two come out the same.
Steel That Was Inflated, Not Carved

Oskar Zięta is a Polish architect and process designer who founded Zieta Studio in 2010. He developed his signature method while researching the stabilisation of sheet metal at ETH Zurich.

That research became FiDU: two thin sheets of steel are welded together and then inflated with compressed air until they take on a third dimension. The process, rather than the drawing, settles the final form — so no two pieces come out quite the same.

The evidence is on the surface. Where the two sheets are welded, the steel stays flat; everywhere else it has swollen. Drab Mirror.

From a stool to a mirror

The Plopp stool of 2008 was the first object to make the method public, and the Tafla mirrors extended it into organic, liquid-like surfaces. His work is held by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

The finish decides the room. Left, a matt piece and a gold Plopp beside a bath. Right, polished inox in a room full of mouldings, where a mirror that bends the reflection is the only modern thing present.

A method borrowed from engineering research, and the object that comes out of it cannot be drawn in advance.

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