Raw Materials From The Plains Of India

Based between London and Jaipur, Studio Raw Material is a design practice whose work centers around geological materials and processes.

Drawing from their stark terrain of the desert plains of western India, Studio Raw Material creates pieces using stone from the hills of the region: diverse in hue, density, and opacity. The studio explains that they were initially inspired by the wastage of marble quarries in Jaipur: “We began this process with exploring materiality in relation to socio-economic forces that guide its abundance, scarcity, and wastage, leading us to understand the inherent paradoxes and perceptions that exist around marble.” Quarried marble is traditionally cut into a rectangular prism so that it can be easily divided into slices for flooring and wall cladding. This process leaves a lot of discarded marble, and it is from these offcuts that Studio Raw Material’s work is formed. “When we saw piles of discarded offcuts,” the Studio explains, “we discovered a quarry of our own with the most beautiful patterns and spots.”