roc h biel turns beech dust into chair inspired by corinthian columns

deconstructing classical architecture for dust order

Dust Order is a sculptural furniture collection by Roc H Biel that reimagines the elegance of Corinthian columns through a modernist lens, transforming classical proportions into flowing, lightweight forms. Crafted from upcycled, compacted beech wood dust — a waste byproduct usually swept off workshop floors — and 3D-printed composites, the sculptural chair and modular desk system explore material contradiction, architectural rhythm, and surreal aesthetics.

Shot on a Welsh slate quarry, the highest in the UK, the project captures a striking contrast between industrial waste and soft, dreamlike forms, offering a poetic reflection on legacy, adaptability, and the blurred lines between physical and digital reality. The work was recently presented at Salone Satellite 2025 during Milan Design Week, with each object telling a story of perception, contradiction, and new material possibilities.

all images courtesy of Roc H Biel

roc h biel upcycles beech wood dust for the furniture series

Roc H Biel’s collection deconstructs the capital, shaft, and entablature elements of the classical architecture to highlight a sense of movement and visual lightness, while maintaining a reverent connection to historical form. The chair is made by compacting and stacking beech wood dust into a monolithic, sculptural form. At first glance, its surface appears stone-like or sand-cast, tricking the eye with its granular texture. But what looks dense and weighty is surprisingly light and circular in origin. Geometry shifts subtly from base to top, octagon to circle to square, while strategic negative space lets light pour through, creating a visual rhythm that gives the piece a sense of gentle drift. The result is a quiet optical illusion: motion from stillness, airiness from mass.

The desk uses 3D-printed columns formed from a bonded mix of magnesium and beech wood dust, resulting in a tactile composite with the look and feel of compacted sand. It is also a modular three-piece system, designed to reconfigure from stool to bench, bench with side table, desk, or dining table. Borrowing the classical logic of column components, each element becomes a versatile building block, allowing users to choreograph space in response to need. ‘I treat classical motifs as raw material, reshaping them through a modern lens until they feel both familiar and strangely futuristic,’ says the designer. ‘They see something that looks ancient or heavy, but then they touch it and everything shifts. It’s about that moment of wonder; when material, memory, and perception all clash in the best way.’

Dust Order reimagines the elegance of Corinthian columns

crafting new ‘architectural relics’

The collection sits at the edge of digital surrealism, deliberately creating objects that look rendered but are intensely real. While AI-generated images strive for realism, Roc H Biel flips the script: crafting tangible objects that feel dreamlike, inviting viewers into a liminal space where physical and pixel blur. This tension is echoed in the photographs, shot on location in a Welsh slate quarry that was once a site of extraction and sharp industrial waste. Its black, jagged landscape offers a dramatic contrast to Dust Order’s smooth, sand-coloured forms.

Set against a backdrop of clouds, the pieces appear almost suspended in the sky, as if gravity itself were uncertain. The result is a visual paradox: weight and weightlessness, ruin and refinement, the earthly and the surreal, all colliding in frame. Dust Order will be available as a limited edition collectible, produced upon request as part of Roc H Biel’s ongoing journey into sculptural, one-off design objects.

the project is a formal study in silhouette and void

the sculptural chair, photographed on quarry stone, juxtaposes mass and levity

shot on a Welsh slate quarrry, the project captures a striking contrast between industrial waste and soft, dreamlike forms

the desk uses 3D-printed columns formed from a bonded mix of magnesium and beech wood dust

two columns on stone, playing with scale, history, and distortion

organic textures mark these new ‘architectural relics’

deconstructing the capital, shaft, and entablature elements of classical architecture

project info:

name: Dust Order
designer: Roc H Biel | @roc.h.biel

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: ravail khan | designboom