Beautiful Bathtub Is Made From Woven White Ash and Maple Veneer
Beautiful design comes in all shapes and sizes, but a bathtub carefully crafted from strips of wood veneer is not something you see everyday. From Israeli designer Tal Engel, this gorgeous bathtub known as Otaku is constructed from this very process by weaving together strips of white ash and maple veneer.
After the ash and veneer sheets are constructed, the large piece of material is pressed into the shape of a tub using steam to soften the wood for bending. It’s then left to dry and later coated in several layers of resin to add strength and make the vessel watertight. This is very similar to the process used by craftspeople in Asia who create large bamboo vessels for transporting water.
In addition to the inner tub structure, a steel wire frame was designed for support. In an interview with Dezeen, Engle explained, “The linear silhouette poetically refers to the fundamental part of the production process and closes a circle by telling the complete narrative–from the actual production to the final outcome.”
In this same interview Engle also explains how the tub’s design is a commentary on the “unique relationship between sailing and bathing.” He explains it as a paradoxical analogy where the idea of bathing is almost opposite to the concept of floating in a boat.
See more work from Engel here.
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