Stacklab

The Cube Series was first founded in 2013 through a partnership with an engineer-turned-concrete-artisan in Toronto to make productive (re)-use of a historic, decommissioned pump pattern that had been in storage locally for over a half century.

Patterns are the original ‘positives’ used in the production of sand-cast metal parts, a method of casting dating back to 1300BC. While patterns are still commonly used in manufacturing, they are regularly decommissioned and archived in response to industry innovation. There is a growing abundance of unproductive industrial patterns in foundries and factories.

STACKLAB identified that storing these patterns indefinitely is a notable waste of space and resources - especially in a city like Toronto with high rents and high utility costs.

For this series, STACKLAB focused specifically on repurposing patterns from 1890-1950. During this period, patterns were often hand-carved by skilled craftspeople whose specialized knowledge of metallurgy and woodworking has been mostly forgotten in today’s era of computer-aided manufacturing. The Cube Series proposed a system for converting disused historic patterns into molds to create contemporary sculptural furnishing.

The result is The Cube Series that reintegrates decommissioned manufacturing materials into the scaled production of useful, modern objects and celebrates Canada’s rich manufacturing history- two of STACKLABS guiding interests.