Brick Chair is a minimalist chair created by Ghent-based designer Bram Vanderbeke. Vanderbeke’s “Casted Objects” collection begins where most buildings do—at the foundation. Drawing inspiration from construction workers’ techniques for creating building foundations, he arranges regular bricks on his studio floor in compositions that balance mathematical precision with artistic intuition. These brick assemblages then serve as impromptu molds for concrete, transforming empty space into solid form.

The resulting pieces—benches, stools, side tables, and pedestals—bear the unmistakable imprint of their brick origins. Each object carries the texture and rhythm of its mold, with grainy surfaces and prominent seams that chronicle the casting process. Rather than polish away these marks of making, Vanderbeke celebrates them, embracing what he describes as a “primitivistic aesthetic” that reveals rather than conceals the object’s creation.

This approach connects Vanderbeke’s work to broader historical precedents in brutalist architecture, where concrete surfaces proudly display their formwork’s imprint. Yet unlike the monumental scale of brutalist buildings, these furniture pieces bring that raw architectural language into intimate domestic space. The side tables and stools invite not just visual but tactile engagement, allowing users to physically connect with architectural principles at a human scale.

The visible seams running through these objects serve as more than mere aesthetic choices—they document the freedom inherent in Vanderbeke’s process. Each junction between poured sections tells a story of material meeting material, of transformation from liquid to solid. These lines become a kind of structural calligraphy that maps the journey from concept to object.