Rubber Hall
Ammar Kalo
The award-winning designer, architect, and researcher Ammar Kalo describes his work as “interrogating the relationship between digital technology and traditional craft” (ammarkalo.com). From large-scale spatial design projects to small-scale pieces, his creations consistently aim to facilitate a dialogue between materiality and form through meticulous attention to detail. His work has been recognised with multiple international and local awards. Kalo is also an associate professor, where his research and teaching focus on robotic fabrication, furniture design, and design-build courses.
Ammar Kalo's research interests include developing design and fabrication projects that explore the inextricable links between materials, fabrication tools, and form-making. He combines this specialisation with his own creative flair to produce the Fikra Tables and Macaron Seats – two design series that utilise recycled tyre rubber.
Fikra Tables by KALO
Embracing visual heaviness and experimenting with such an unconventional material as recycled rubber crumb led Kalo to create KALO’s Fikra Tables, a series of tables with bulbous rubber bodies that appear to have been sliced in half, revealing a solid white oak interior.
The table tops are made of white oak panels and cerused with pink paint, picking up hues from their surroundings. The hovering black masses are delicately balanced by contrasting thin legs that pierce through to the ground. A cross-section of the legs can be seen from the table top, nestled between the tabletop surface and the rubber exterior.
These pieces were commissioned by Fikra Campus, a design studio, co-working space, café, design library, and experimental gallery based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Each of the four tables was designed for a specific use and location within the space.
Macaron Table
KALO was one of two teams of designers commissioned by BEEAH Group, the Middle East’s leading waste management company, to explore the potential of using locally recycled rubber crumbs in a furniture collection. His approach involved employing an industrial technique similar to BEEAH Group's process for making rubber pavement tiles. This collaboration resulted in the Macaron Seats, crafted partly from recycled rubber crumbs sourced from used tyres.
Each Macaron seat is created by pressing a two-part mould onto a pre-existing wooden frame. The design explores the softness, compressibility, and bonding capabilities of rubber, integrating it with other recycled materials like wood chips to redefine the relationship between soft and hard surfaces in a chair. KALO describes the Macaron concept as follows: “The design is simple yet rich in detailing. Its speckled seat surface results from adding wood chips generated during leg fabrication, with a brass ribbon sandwiched in the centre for added refinement.”
The seats feature smooth, chamfered surfaces, rounded edges, and a distinctive fuzzy centre. The legs extend from the rubber mass, folding towards the ground and leaving an X-shaped silhouette print on the seat's underside, as if the solid rubber had stretched to accommodate them. The moulds' parting lines are accentuated by allowing some overflow rubber, creating a solid rim around the seat.
After demoulding, this rim is removed, resulting in a rough edge that contrasts with the smooth seat surfaces. Embedded within is a thin brass element that enhances visual tension and juxtaposition. Mixed with the rubber crumb are wood shavings from the leg fabrication process, giving the seats a contrasting, speckled, organic appearance,” explains KALO.
Ammar Kalo’s work has been recognised through multiple international and local awards, including the Emerging Designer Award from Harper’s Bazaar Interiors. Kalo is also an associate professor and the Director of Labs at the College of Architecture Art and Design, American University of Sharjah. His research and teaching focuses on robotic fabrication, furniture design and design-build courses.
