Dig Where
You Stand

Estonian Academy of Arts
Product Design Department

Concept: Nick Ross
Project lead & research: Anna-Liisa Laarits

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Blocks of limestone are transformed into furniture in this collection by students from the Product Design Department of Estonian Academy of Arts. Devised and co-led by designer Nick Ross, the course – titled Dig Where You Stand – investigated the history of limestone in Estonia. Students were asked both to acknowledge the legacy of one of the country’s largest dolomite quarries, while also contesting its historic contribution to the present-day limestone industry that uses the stone mainly as a finishing material.

Alus

Platter
Siim Simmermann
Material: limestone

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The simple yet organic form of the platter is derived from the geological origins of limestone formations. Whenever slightly acidic rainwater falls on the surface of the bedrock, it acts to slowly break it down near its fractures, gradually resulting in a very distinct type of karst topography - of oval, irregular or dish shaped two-piece object.

Sample 4 - When
the Shovel Hits the Stone

Stool
Oliver Kanniste
Material: limestone (factory waste)

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Having missed the day-trip to the limestone reserves in Estonia the designer decided to collect 13 varieties of local limestone. Instead of digging below the surface for raw materials, he scavenged stone as well as other discarded objects and materials above-ground.

Reflect

Mirror
Hanna-Liisa Haukka
Material: Drill core of Lasnamägi limestone, hand-sanded mirror glass

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Reflect conflates an everyday, purely functional, and a decorative object. The cylindrical section of limestone used in the design of Reflect is a core sample - a small portion of limestone formation removed from the Earth’s surface for geologic analysis.