Grace Prince Held Absence No.1 | Desk

Cast bronze, low-iron glass, iron and polished stainless steel.

The bronze cast of a found wood fragment appears held in an assemblage of rigidity and lightness. The structure is an interplay of rationalist ironwork and fine, almost ethereal polished steel rods.

The piece is part of Held Absence, Grace 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 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. 

H78 L160 D77cm 

GP001