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Sebastian Bergne’s latest glassware objects are both playful and deeply practical. The pieces, which include several new vessels crafted from hand-blown borosilicate, aim to reinvent not just the aesthetic of the everyday glass but also how users serve, hold and interact with them. Launched in July at the inaugural gastronomic innovation show Haute Cuisine in Paris, many of the pieces are commercial realisations of the London designer’s small-scale personal projects and prototypes, which piqued the interest of buyers and manufacturers following his Blow By Blow show at Somerset House last year. Dizzy Whisky is a reimagining of a shot glass created for Bergne’s wedding in 1996. Perfectly balanced on conical bases, the vessels swing round gyroscopically, pleasantly chiming when they meet, creating an amicable atmosphere. Bergne says: “When designing, you have to consider the effect of the event – the impact [the glasses] might have in a social moment.” The tumbler is a tonic for restless hands, but the movement also helps to aerate the spirit. The same fun and function is embodied in Column, a champagne glass which can be stacked to create a breathtaking tower that soars above the heads of party guests. “Innovation can lie in different places,” Bergne says. “This is a more functional approach – it’s not always about the formal language of the glass but about the way that it is used.” Bearing out Bergne’s approach to designing glassware, the elegant and humorous Pipe offers the drinker an atypical method of doing something very ordinary – sipping from a glass. “When you begin, the experience is like that of drinking through a straw. When you get to a certain point – below the ‘u-bend’ – you have to tip it, meaning you inhale the vapours. It also gets you drunk pretty quickly, which is an added bonus.” Hand contact with the bowl is designed to warm the contents – perfect for spirits like cognac and armagnac – and coaxes the user to “rediscover a gesture that is disappearing”, Bergne says. The glass has been co-produced with Milan design gallery Pigr and will be sold, like Bergne’s other new pieces, through his online shop.
credit Pigr Milan |
Image Sebastian Bergne Ltd
Words Laura Snoad |
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