Ketel One Bar London

This year sees the opening of Dutch branded vodka Ketel open their new bar in London, Ketel One. When looking at the bar itself, you can't help but be "wowed" by the bars appearance. The reason is that nearly every single part of the bar and the handmade bar stools are completely covered in copper.

You may think this metal bar look is just another of Christopher Jenner's unusually crafted pieces; however the use of copper has a reason for being used. During the17th century Ketel used copper stills in order to produce their vodka. Jenner decided to use this in order to represent his design for Ketel. "Normally we use multiple techniques, materials and manufacturing processes to deliver our work," says Jenner "but on this occasion we decided to commit to a single material."

Constructing the actual bar and the barstools was a straight forward design process, however implementing the manufacturing processes was, as Jenner points out, tricky. "From a manufacturing and realisation point, we were totally in the dark. The way in which we constructed the pieces was unprecedented and this meant we had to develop new manufacturing processes."

First of all the bar and bar stools had to be made using wood and metal skeletons to create the shape. The copper was then heated to make it malleable and vertical strips were riveted to the wooden skeleton. Finally the stool was finished with a covering sheet of copper, which is then double-riveted to create a seamless copper surface. To complete this project more than 1000kg of copper was used however looking at the finished project, it seems that this design has set a standard in cafe furniture, bar furniture and restaurant furniture.