Previous experiments with lava stone inspired her firepit’s organic form. The intricate stoneware creation also features a gradient that augments light from the flames. “We did this hot-cool effect where the glaze crackles and you put some black stain into it, so that makes it a bit more volcanic,” Cognet says.
Indeed, the melting effect the ceramic expresses empowers Lava Flow to speak for itself as a sculpture when unlit. “I thought it was super interesting to mimic something like melting,” Cognet adds. “It’s like a mini volcano in your garden.”
Back across the Atlantic, in San Francisco, AD PRO Directory–listed studio Orca is creating firepits in the forms of concentric circles, or stitched-together sculptures. Founder Molly Sedlacek sources her metals from within the Bay Area—and at the moment, she says, demand is high. “Almost 80% of our projects want a firepit,” she notes. “Humans want fire.”
Orca’s vessels share a rustic color story but vary in composition, featuring stainless steel or brass. They were an obvious choice, Sedlacek says, either for their reflectivity or the oxidation they earn with age. “They’re black and silver and then, after the first rain, they become rust in this wonderful matte silver tone,” she says. “It’s truly the natural elements that patina. The actual fire itself doesn’t have an impact on it.”
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A handful of evergreen principles still inform the typology, but an intimate knowledge of materiality and ventilation is principal for newer designers. “There’s a whole science to airflow and also choosing materials that are correct,” Sedlacek says. “It’s understanding the heat rate and combustion of materials, and also knowing the size of the burner.”
“Considering the airflow is critical,” Wiseman adds. “Thinking of it in terms of a collaboration with the fire—how does it activate it when the fire is [burning]?—I think is a really exciting way to design.”
Smoke’s impact on both comfort and the environment remains perhaps the largest factor of all. Sedlacek is already seeing an uptick in more alternative models. “I could see a world where we go to more electric starters,” she says. “When we first started, we were just doing wood-burning and now we’ve switched to gas and we also have an electric starter that you can modify.”
For Wiseman, however, the primeval poetry of building a fire remains his muse. “There’s something about the ritual of creating the fire, of putting the logs on, and creating the kindling, and then the natural process of it burning through as opposed to just pressing a button,” Wiseman says. “It takes away the magic.”
Enjoying your backyard should be a year-round thing, after all
