Chiselled acoustic foam, hand-bent metal and interlocking rulers feature in an exhibition of stools created with single tools, presented by students from the Royal College of Art at London Design Festival.
One Tool, One Stool is the culmination of an exercise undertaken by every design products master's student at the Royal College of Art (RCA).
As the exhibition title suggests, each student was challenged to conceive a stool using a single tool and minimal materials.
Twenty-three of the varied results are on display at The Lavery in South Kensington, arranged across the floor like precious artefacts within the workspace of the venue's namesake, the late painter John Lavery.
Ranging from practical to more abstract examples, each stool features a different design. Among the pieces is a low-slung seat by Sue Ye, formed from orange and yellow paint rollers strung together with thin red rope.
Close by is a dusty pink stool by Pil Gyu Jan, made of slabs of acoustic foam that were subtly chiselled into shape.
Mayank Patole has crafted a simple, eight-pronged stool out of 10 stainless steel 6o-centimetre rulers. The experimental stool is held together by a single nut and bolt and was created to highlight how a set of measuring tools can become a load-bearing structure.
Considering the exhibition concept, the RCA said, "the exercise asks students to consider how much can be achieved with very little, encouraging resourcefulness and a direct relationship between thinking and making".
"Each response reveals a different approach to materials, construction and problem-solving," added the university.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, Anisa Yelek is presenting a bulbous stool made from a cluster of white candles melded together using a heat gun.
Yelek wanted to create seating that encouraged quiet contemplation.
"It's a stool that might melt," she said. "It's a seat that asks you to think about what it means to sit, to stay, to burn."
Nymph Mongkolcheep has designed a textured, cubic stool wreathed in wooden beads bound by spindly wire.
Next to Mongkolcheep's piece, Vincent Schwarz placed a hand-bent piece of metal that was shaped to provide seating – among the most minimalist stools in the show.
One Tool, One Stool is part of the Perfectly Imperfect exhibition at The Lavery, curated by Alex Tieghi-Walker. The exhibition also includes the second-ever Studio Iron collectible design show.
As London Design Festival (LDF) continues across the capital, there is still time to visit any or all of our must-see picks taking place until the end of the week.
The photography is by Andy Stagg.
One Tool, One Stool is on show from 12 to 20 September as part of London Design Festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.