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Design Research Studio is a design and innovations consultancy working on the products, spaces and brands of tomorrow. The studio works with a wide variety of global clients across products, interiors, architecture, graphics, branding and content.

Rich in narrative, we nurture a fast-growing, international portfolio that ranges from hospitality and retail to co-working spaces and monumental complexes.

Linking into our network of design and manufacturing partners, our studio realises projects globally.

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Rondure House
Melbourne, Audtralia
Above Zero
One Park Drive
London, UK
Canary Wharf Group
Hydro
London, UK
Tom Dixon
Silverleaf
London, UK
Pan Pacific Hotels Group
The Manzoni
Milan, Italy
Tom Dixon
UNITY
Stockholm, Sweden
ABRDN Standard Investments
Mondrian Hotel
London, UK
Morgans Hotel Group
Liquid
Istanbul, Turkey
VitrA
Gardening Will Save The World
London, UK
IKEA
TANK
London, UK
Tom Dixon
Quay Quarter Tower
Sydney, Australia
AMP Capital Investments
CODE
Milan, Italy
Prolicht
Design
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Research
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Complex forms with a playful sensibility.
Project
Hydro
London, UK
Client
Tom Dixon
Scope
Product
Art Direction
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The Hydro chair is an innovation in aluminium manufacturing. Design Research Studio worked with Hydro, the world’s largest aluminium producer and skilled engineers from the automotive industry to produce this incredibly light, phenomenally strong and 100% recyclable stacking chair.

The Hydro chair is an innovation in aluminium manufacturing. Design Research Studio worked with Hydro, the world’s largest aluminium producer and skilled engineers from the automotive industry to produce this incredibly light, phenomenally strong and 100% recyclable stacking chair.

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Manufactured in Canada by Verbom, the Hydro chair is one hundred percent recyclable aluminium.
Above Manufactured in Canada by Verbom, the Hydro chair is one hundred percent recyclable aluminium.
Through a Superplastic Forming process The HYDRO chair has been blow-formed at high temperatures and then laser cut.
Above Through a Superplastic Forming process The HYDRO chair has been blow-formed at high temperatures and then laser cut.
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PHOTOGRAPHY
Pete Navey

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‍3D ARTIST
Jonathan Formento

Aluminium is strong, light, and infinitely recyclable. Our interest in exploring this super material led us to Hydro; the largest aluminium producer in the world and leader in responsible production, and to the automotive industry where we investigated the latest methods of car manufacturing.

We used automotive machinery capable of making previously unachievable deep and complex contours in sheet aluminium to create an unprecedented chair design.

Shapes are blow-formed at high temperature in a process called superplastic forming and then laser cut. The resulting ballooned shape is rigid and strong yet aesthetically soft with a pleasingly rounded three-dimensionality.

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