Charles Haupt
Designer
Charles Haupt was born in 1980 in Johannesburg and graduated from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology as an industrial designer in 2001. Working closely with Otto du Plessis, he has spearheaded the functional design side of Bronze Age Studio, combining modern fabrication and digitally driven design with traditional bronze sculpture-casting. Haupt is guided from inception to production by a concern for function and process rather than adornment, but does not consider himself a minimalist; rather, he invests structural details with beauty. His work strikes a balance between reproducibility and singularity, combining the precision, efficiency, and flexibility of digital and industrial processes with the tactile intimacy of hand-crafted objects. Together with Gerrit Giebel, Haupt started NØDE, a design studio producing metal furniture and interior products, and is the result of Bronze Age Studio branching out into new design territory.
Exhibited at DESIGN MIAMI.LA 2024 Charles Haupt’s Tropism series of bronze tables recalls a long-held fascination with the response of an organism to environmental stimulus. The word “tropism” refers to a biological phenomenon, indicating the growth or movement of a biological organism (usually a plant) in response to an environmental stimulus (such as light from the sun). The series encompasses four pieces: Tropism Mensa Altum, Tropism Mensa Humilis, Tropism Mensa Tertium and the most recent, Tropism Mensa Foliorum. With the use of algorithms, the works are designed digitally as a reflection on nature – the geometry, patterns and structures that harmonise the chaos. These are then 3d printed to make sculptures that are cast in bronze. Blending sculpture and design, Haupt’s limited-edition design pieces reflect his interest in geometry and the structures and patterns of the natural world.
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