Dezeen Showroom: designer Sebastian Herkner worked with Italian heating brand Tubes to create Terre, the company's first radiator made from terracotta.

Taking its name from the Italian word for "earth", Terre is made from the clay of the Impruneta quarry in Tuscany, providing a warm, rustic contrast to the usual metal character of radiators.

Tubes used terracotta not just for the surface but as the structural body of the radiator, with the material being extruded through a special mould to achieve its continuous, long, vertical form.

The terracotta is fired and glazed with a choice of one of five glossy colours – including a transparent option that showcase's the material's natural character – and contains an integrated electric heating element made of recycled aluminium.

"I like exploring new methods and using a traditional, almost archaic material in a new context," said Herkner. "Terracotta is an authentic material, connected to earth and warmth."

"Using it today in a heating object creates a natural connection between function and material," he continued.

The Terre radiator is available with two optional accessories – a marble or lacquered shelf that lets the radiator double as a multifunctional catch-all in a hallway, and a metal towel rail that turns it into a towel warmer for the bathroom.

Product details:

Product: Terre
Designer: Sebastian Herkner
Brand: Tubes
Contact: [email protected]

Materials: terracotta, aluminium
Colours/finishes: Transparent Glazed Terracotta, Vitreous White, Bark Brown, Mineral Grey, Ocean Blue
Dimensions: 1120 x 140 x 1400 millimetres

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