weyers & borms: 'quercus' water barrel

‘quercus’, 2004 water butt, composite (glass fibre and polyester), acrylic paint image © designboom

weyers & borms recently had their project ‘quercus’ on show in the ‘je suis dada’ show at the design flanders gallery in brussels. ‘quercus’ is a water barrel made from a polyester / fibreglass cast of a 150 year-old oak trunk. the oak tree was waiting to be sawn. at a point in time a tree like this is in the twilight zone – a transitional phase. it is no longer anchored to the ground, nor part of a forest, no longer breathing. typically turned into glorious floorboards, it is at this point that the designers took the tree in another direction. a silicone mold of the tree resulted in a form that is almost identical to the original. the composite was selected to suit the object’s new use and combines water-tightness with the life expectancy of a water barrel.

a small tap is built into the trunk to release collected water image © designboom

water collection device image © designboom