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Christian Borger’s ‘Ultra-light’™ uses repetition as a structural language
‘Ultra-light’™ series by Christian Borger
Image: © 2022 Christian Borger
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Christian Borger’s ‘Ultra-light’™ uses repetition as a structural language

Christian Borger creates an ensemble of lightweight furniture and lighting products that challenge the extant ideas of design and building.

by Anushka Sharma
Published on : Aug 22, 2022

The realm of design branches out in response to two fundamentals: the necessity–of the users–and the curiosity–of the creators to answer the same questions in new and refreshing ways. With this as a foundation, Christian Borger, a Boston-based designer, maker and artist, evolves a method to traverse craft by employing limited tools and readily accessible, affordable resources, all the while preserving the quality and aesthetics of designs. In a series of furniture and lighting designs tagged ‘Ultra-light’™, the designer unveils lightweight yet sturdy structures that aim to minimise material and maximise functionality. “I began to consider rigorously how resources, material, assembly, and performance can be a direct driver for a process,” says Christian Borger. “Rather than directly sequential, processes should be closer to an ecosystem, where each element informs another. In this sense the product is solely a result, never a driver,” he adds.

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Ultralight™ series encompasses furniture and lighting designs Image: © 2022 Christian Borger
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The designs use limited tools and readily accessible resources Image: © 2022 Christian Borger

While getting his degree in architecture, Borger’s inclination towards fabrication and making surged. This became the inception of a journey that explored furniture as a way to apply and inform his design education in a tangible and accessible way. After graduating and renting a small studio, he began to challenge and reconsider the conventional route of designing and building. The ‘Ultra-light’™ series materialised as a result of Borger’s understanding of what his process is and what his philosophies on making are. “The series was never about aesthetic form making, but applying the same process and design language in as many ways as possible to try to re-inform my ideas of how we build, regardless of scale or function,“ Borger says.

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The designer unveils lightweight yet sturdy structures Image: © 2022 Christian Borger
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Lamp designs for the ‘Ultra-light’™ series Image: © 2022 Christian Borger

All pieces of the ensemble, ranging from furniture design to lighting design, use the same base material. Each piece of furniture has an interrelated system consisting of softwood logs with a small square section, stiff tensile strands made of kevlar or carbon fibre and a lightweight surface. In a process that resorts to efficiency while reiterating structural language in collaboration with few materials, the results are strong, lightweight, and functional compositions. The simple and repeatable technique of assembly and joinery minimises the use of material while maximising the performance of each component, sans the design complexity. The pieces also consider the dimensions of the acquired stock to reduce the overall waste. “I realised after building the first table using material size and structural assembly as a constraint, it resulted in an incredibly lightweight yet sturdy piece that did not require material complexity or many specialised tools,” the furniture designer explains. “I saw it as an opportunity to critique the way we currently build, whether that be furniture, or other scales and uses,” he adds.

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Simple and repeatable technique marks the designs Image: © 2022 Christian Borger
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Use of material is minimised and functionality is maximised Image: © 2022 Christian Borger

The furniture pieces–encompassing chair designs, table designs and lamp designs–all weigh under 6 lbs (2.7 kilograms), performing their respective functions effortlessly. As a study, a lightweight truss of the same construction weighed 2 lbs (0.9 kilograms) in material, but could bear a load of 165 lbs (74.8 kilograms). The pieces and techniques draw constantly from various methods, scales, and applications such as boatbuilding, lightweight aircraft, kites, camping equipment, bridges, and architectural structures. “Research is a large part of my process, I’m always looking for methods and applications that I can learn from. The research is also meant to be a way for me to keep the process evolving–I try to look for things that are similar on a conceptual basis but different in application,” shares Borger. “Although I am focusing on furniture scale work, I rarely look towards furniture for research and inspiration,” he points out.

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T-03 table by Christian Borger Image: © 2022 Christian Borger
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The designs draw inspiration from various methods, scales, and applications Image: © 2022 Christian Borger

‘Ultra-light’™ is a growing body of work that to date includes various pieces of furniture, lighting elements, and some small structures. Over time, Christian intends to refine the method and process further to apply to larger-scale works, while continuing to develop the furniture and household items for potential manufacture in a larger quantity. “I constantly remind myself not to push them as a product as a way to keep the process at the core of what I am doing,” says Borger. “Ultimately, to keep enjoyment and genuine curiosity as the basis of the work will always be my primary goal, otherwise it will lose its meaning,” he concludes.

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