At last year’s Downtown Design Fair in Dubai, Karim Tamerji and Elias El Hage, the duo behind the UAE-based studio Karim+Elias, debuted an unexpected coffee table. Perched atop three large pebbles, a glass sheet delicately bends to accommodate the ridges below it. The table, aptly named Desert Drop, conjures a specific image not only in name but in form: iridescent water droplets couched in desert sand.
Tamerji and El Hage are no strangers to sand, both as a source of inspiration and as a material. Their practice revolves around it, in part due to their proximity to the desert itself. Each Karim+Elias project mimics the earthy aridness of the surrounding UAE landscape, sculpted with precision in order to evoke everything from cracked clay to ancient relics. The Desert Drop table is no exception, offering an innovative interpretation of naturalistic design.
What renders the Desert Drop table particularly impressive is its sense of movement. The crystal glass perfectly curves alongside the pebbles, which are composed of desert sand, and resembles a sheet of molten metal or a rippling pool of water. The effect ultimately creates the illusion of a horizon line or a shifting desert mirage, as the blue-green glass and smooth, earth-hued pebbles gracefully juxtapose one another.
“The piece captures the gestural form of sand ‘droplets’ and the fluid-like characteristics of oasis water,” Tamerji and El Hage write of the table.
The Desert Drop table also unearths the organic relationship between its two primary materials. Sand is needed to make glass, and, in putting both sand and glass in direct contact, Tamerji and El Hage literalize their symbiosis.
Karim+Elias boasts countless designs influenced by desert landscapes, including monumental hand-pressed layers of earth, titled Sand Skins, and a series of grand sculptures recalling the region’s rich archaeological history. To learn more, visit the Karim+Elias website.
The UAE-based studio Karim+Elias has created the Desert Drop coffee table, inspired by the organic relationship between sand and glass.
The table recalls UAE’s surrounding desert landscape while also evoking a dramatic sense of movement through its curved, irregular surfaces.
Karim+Elias boasts countless projects inspired by and composed of sand, including the Sand Skin series and The Desert Relics.
From the “Sand Skin” series.
From the “Sand Skin” series.
“The Desert Relics,” UAE, 2024.
“The Desert Relics,” UAE, 2024.
Karim+Elias: Website | Instagram
All images via Karim+Elias.
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