RSS Vessels (RSS 1, 3, 5)

Created by Christian+Jade, a design studio helmed by Christian Hammer Juhl and Jade Chan, the RSS Vessels is a set of three rubber baskets that draws upon Southeast Asia's rich material culture, in particular the rubber industry and its significance in Singapore’s economic growth. It examines the production and material attributes of natural rubber sheets produced from latex, known commercially as Ribbed Smoked Sheets, which is also the acronym from which the work’s title is derived. In addition to cultivating rubber, Singapore was also a key node in the regional rubber market in the early to mid-20th century as a hub for processing and re-exporting rubber sheets due to the availability of infrastructure and human capital. Rubber remains a major global commodity traded today.The designers had elected to design each vessel by folding and fastening the four corners in place with leather cords, so as to retain and express their original material attributes as sheets. The distinctive ribbed diamond texture on the sheets was a result of the machinery used to roll and remove excess water from the latex sheets, while the shades of natural tones from pale yellow to dark brown originate from the smoking process which serves to disinfect and enhance the quality of the sheets for commercial use. RSS Vessels seeks to present natural rubber in its raw, industrial form —a rarely seen state that reveals the material's journey and traces of the processes embedded within it.First presented at EMERGE@FIND in 2022, a platform showcasing the works of Southeast Asian Design talent as part of the annual design fair in Singapore, RSS Vessels led up to the design of the Para Stool in 2024 when the designers expanded their scope to include reimagining the use of rubber wood.