Grace Prince & Sanna Helena Berger Held Absence No.7 | Tray

Hand-poured glass.

A pool of swirled glass, shaped at the edges. Made by hand-pouring molten glass directly from the kiln onto a metal plate, the cooler temperature triggers a rippling texture.

This tactile collaboration between Grace Prince and artist Sanna Helena Berger is created in response to Held Absence, Prince’s largest furniture collection to date addressing a long-held fascination with absence and fragility. The pieces develop the designer’s free, gestural approach into six assemblages in bronze, steel and wood. Designed exclusively for Béton Brut, the works emerged from a period spent living in a traditional house just north of Kyoto. The collection is handmade to order in 12 weeks.

Grace Prince (born in London, 1992) is a multidisciplinary designer based between Zürich, Milan and London. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, she worked as the assistant designer to Vincenzo De Cotiis before becoming a material researcher at ETH University design studio Material Gesture under Prof. Anne Holtrop. Prince was selected as an AD100 designer in 2023. Her largest collection to date comes hot off multiple solo and group shows, Salone del Mobile and residencies at Perspective in Kyoto and Numeroventi in Florence, 2024.

Prince’s furniture explores the harmonies and tensions inherent in assemblage. The process is a meticulous exercise in reduction and composition, with each element crafted by her hand or in close collaboration with artisans. 

H4 W35 D35cm

GP007