Many of us will have picked up a bucket and spade and started to get creative with sand. Few, however, have an affinity with the material quite like designer Rollo Bryant. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the potential of transforming unconventional materials,’ he tells us, explaining that quartz sand’s texture, natural hues and occasional translucency captivated him, adding a layer of depth and organic beauty to his creations.
Bryant was born in the Dorset countryside, studying first near London and then at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven. It is sand sourced from Bavaria (chosen for its purity), however, that Bryant transforms into his many fantastical light-ing creations. ‘Its unique properties enabled me to explore previously unattainable geometries,’ he explains. ‘It helped me transform imagined designs into tangible forms.’
The actual process of that transformation is both highly technical and painstaking. It’s a technique known as binder-jet additive manufacturing, during which a thin layer of sand is spread across a build platform and then a binder is precisely added, with this action repeated until the piece begins to emerge. Once it does, a stabilising substance is infused into the printed structure, with any excess sand removed and recycled.
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‘It’s a sustainable manufacturing approach,’ says Bryant, and one that can create designs that look at once natural and otherworldly. The biomimicry is, of course, no coincidence. Bryant avidly observes the ‘patterns, geometries and volumes found in the natural world’, while also harnessing advanced software to ‘simulate and mimic natural phenomena’.
Drawn to producing lighting, the designer has a fascination with it that, he says, ‘stems from the emotions evoked by different light conditions and an overly analytical perspective’. It is, he notes, ‘great professionally, but not so great when trying to relax in a friend’s brightly lit living room’.
You can spot his appreciation of the nuances of light and shade in every one of his designs – the darkness and intrigue being just as important as the illumination. New projects are on the horizon too, with Bryant hinting at an upcoming speaker. We’ll keep our ears at the ready. rollostudio.com
