‘Hot Tools’ was one of three exhibitions presented by ECAL (University of Art and Design, Lausanne) for the Salone 2012.

Showcasing the outcome of a workshop at the ECAL ( held in Jan 2012), led by the acclaimed French designer Ronan Bouroullec and glassblower Matteo Gonet, during which 20 Product Design Masters students were asked to devise and build novel tools and forms which were most likely to result in an interesting, traditionally-blown glass objects, the exhibition featured eight innovative glass pieces as well as the novel devices which were employed in the production process.

‘A crash course in glass, not to say the least, is how we could sum up this project. Pairing the expert eye and intelligence of a designer and the know-how of a experienced glass-blower together with a passionate but somehow naïve outlook from the students was a challenge. The project took place during the cold month of January but the kilns of the glass workshop kept everybody warm. The aim was not to design another vase or bowl, it was to experiment, create new processes and tools, testing the limits of both the material and our ideas.’ – Alexis Georgacopoulos, Director ECAL

‘Glass is used in a wide variety of areas, in a multitude of guises, thereby allowing plenty of scope for exploration. Since the material is basically technical in nature, tools have been used from the beginning of time to process glass. The ‘tools’ made by the students themselves took the form of wooden moulds, glass powder and copper, leather, etc. The workshop sessions were intensive and lively!’ – Matteo Gonet, Glassblower

‘Thanks to this extraordinary technician Matteo Gonet and his generosity towards the designers, based on the assumption that nothing is impossible, it is about trying, we produced a range of truly interesting tests.’ – Ronan Bouroullec