Edwardian Grate

A heavy four-fold lattice of pierced grilles, drawn from the cast-iron ventilation grates set into the floors and shopfronts of Edwardian buildings. Those grates had a job — moving air, holding weight — and the patterns were cut to do that work without giving up the ornament.

The result is geometry with mass to it. Thick bars, clean openings, the kind of figure that reads as built rather than drawn.

The same form works at three scales without changing. As a floor grate it covers a vent. Cut larger, it becomes a wall screen or a gate panel. Cut smaller in metal, it becomes a pendant — the bars and openings of the grille rendered at the size of the hand.