Gustav Winsth stacks vinyl layers to build benches, shelves and bowls

What is it about the industrial sheen that seems attractive and intriguing? It is perhaps the rawness of colour, texture, materiality and finish, accompanied also by a lack of glitzy decoration and showy elements. Simply put, this style and aesthetic, since it is exposed and naked, also possibly welcomes viewers to feel and express themselves more openly, and hence live more authentically. While large-scale architectural installations and interior spaces built following this style manage to command a domineering presence, smaller prototypes are visible in the form of furniture design or other ancillary objects usually feature as interesting additions to interior decors. One such recent product design creation that manages to exude a similar raw charm is the Cross Section furniture series, which is a sustainable design collection created by Swedish designer Gustav Winsth using Tarkett’s vinyl rolls and tiles. “It's such a luxury to be handed a material library and a rather free rein to create anything from it,” says Winsth, expressing happiness over his collaboration with the French flooring and wall coverings brand.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Winsth is a trained mechanical engineer-turned-designer. Under his eponymous practice, he regularly challenges himself to create new designs that experiment with material, technique and form, while also referencing street fashion and radical design. While some of his furniture is built using recycled products and materials, others are a result of the product designer’s attempt at exploring archaic wood craftsmanship or sandblasting techniques, all the while fulfilling the criteria of sustainability. “I love to get to know new materials and find ways to challenge them in their usage and appearance. I think Tarkett saw that in my previous designs. The ‘Cross Section’ shelf is based on my previous shelf design, DIO, which has an anodized aluminium body and a sneaker design inspired platform built using granulated rubber waste. Now, the DIO shelf has new shoes,” Winsth, who also works as a freelance designer says, delineating his creative practice.

Using different assembly techniques, Winsth created this three-dimensional set of organic design objects using two-dimensional materials. His recurrent method of stacking two millimetres thick vinyl layers one atop the other results in organic objects, the cross-section of which is plainly made visible, and hence the name of this collection which marks a new wave in Swedish design. “As the vinyl flooring material is made to be mounted on flat surfaces, I wanted to introduce rounded and organic shapes into the mix,” Winsth explains. By mounting the organically cut vinyl layers atop each other, he was able to create a wave-like profile as a base of the shelf, creating the impression that the storage unit is floating on a water body like a boat, or perhaps surging through it like a submarine. The 100 layers of iQ Eminent vinyl cut in different sizes and shapes and stacked atop each other to form a topographical shelf base give form to an organic profile. These layers can also be dismantled and reused after usage, enhancing the practice of upcycled design.

When asked about his experience of working on the project, Winsth said: “The project suited me quite well! I tend to work a lot in the digital when experimenting with shapes. Much of the work was modelled in virtual reality, to then be exported, sliced into 2mm thick sheets, and finally cut out of the vinyl.” ‘Cross Section’ comprises a shelf, a room divider, a bench and a bowl. It was built as part of a larger series of products created using aluminium and vinyl floor coverings from the ‘Circular Collection’ by Tarkett Sweden, and displayed recently during Stockholm Creative Edition 2022. The collection will soon also be presented at Institut suédois in Paris, France during the upcoming Paris Design Week. Winsth looks forward to more such experimental projects in the future where he can explore different materials and their scope.