Inside Seongil Choi's experiments with materials and form

Seongil Choi graduated from The Royal College of Arts before setting up his practice Studio Il Works, in his native Korea. Now based in Seoul, he works on furniture and objects with an experimental approach and a particular focus on manufacturing techniques and materials. His oeuvre is eclectic, spanning from lighting objects that play with colour and movement, to furniture made of metal mesh, bent like paper and coated with colourful and shiny polyurethane rubber.

Seongil Choi: a design in constant experimentation

'RCA gave me a new perspective on what could be design,' he says of his time in London, studying with the likes of Max Lamb and Harry Richardson. 'At that time designers inventing new ways of making, designing tools and material was a relatively new approach to me especially coming from a city where industrial design mostly meant designing for a big company. Just seeing this idea could be a design practice on its own  was an eye opening experience and gave me the courage that I could also be working on experimental making.'

Among Choi's most relevant projects so far has been his MA graduation project, 'Hot Wire Extensions', a collaboration with Fabio Hendry exploring alternative processes for furniture making. 'The technique reuses waste nylon powder from SLS 3D printing, a material currently not recycled,' explains Choi. 'The process starts by building a shape from thin nichrome wire that fits within the dimensions of a cuboid container. The wire is placed inside the box, filled with a mixture of pure silica sand and waste nylon powder. 

'Sand acts both as a filler material, preventing the nylon powder from dripping off the wire, and also as a heat conductor. A battery sends an electric current through the resistant metal, melting the surrounding nylon. The process turns the transient into a solid, seamlessly binding the material to find its own organic, bone-like ideal structure.'

Later works include the Hardened Mesh series, in which he created shapes out of wire and then coated them in several layers of polyurethane rubber. 'Working with wire. It is as easy as working with paper, but also that much fragile,' he explains. He applied this process to furniture as well as smaller objects and vessels. 

Choi's Block Stool is among his most mature furniture works: a geometric composition of six steel blocks balancing onto each other, it looks like an intuitively built object. A special edition of the stool was part of the Props collection for Hem X, the Swedish brand’s experimental branch, in a special polished limited edition.

'I think it’s my general curiosity of things inspire me,' he says. 'I get excited sometimes just thinking about new material combinations, seeing techniques I’ve not known before and imagining new ways of using it. One thing I love about living in Seoul is that there are still a lot of areas where things are made in the middle of the city. I really enjoy strolling around theses alleys and taking a look on what’s is there and how things are made. This surroundings really inspires me, and sometimes directly leads me to a new project idea.'

Choi is currently starting a PHD at Seoul National University, where he plans to expand his knowledge of the material landscape, and explore experimental applications in manufacturing and design. 'I am now exploring recycled material from industrial waste and how this could replace conventional materials,' he say. 

When we asked him what advice he'd pass on to the next generation of designers, he said: 'I’ve learned that it is important to have a flexible mind and openness. Not sticking to one medium but to express and design in many ways possible. Which could lead to new ideas and possibilities.'

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