What exactly is so interesting about minimalist shapes? Why should it be desirable to go back to simple geometric forms and archaic materials when we have the broadest variety of skills, technologies and matter at hand? Brooklyn-based design studio Uhuru found one of my favourite answers to these questions.

Reducing an object to its purest form often reveals the external as much as the piece itself and, in relief, connects us to our surrounding environment.

Which means that we not only express our taste by choosing a specific type of interior, we also shine a new light on ourselves, our behaviour and the cultural environment we live in. This is such a beautiful and engaging concept of design that it seems very necessary to inspect the actual objects Uhuru creates, to back it all up. Let’s have a look at the Tack End Tables. These are part of a whole series of objects made out of hand-blackened steel and created with Donald Judd’s art and Tadao Ando’s architecture in mind. But even as one piece, this tiny table, makes such a prominent entrance when placed in a living room, that the concepts underlying Uhuru’s design suddenly become more than obvious. The way this—in no way simple—geometric shape reflects the light, changes its impression seen from different angles, from every perspective taken and at the same time makes any ornament around it seem more than tacky, is very much due to the consistent and forceful reduction of lines and use of material.