‘Melt’ Coffee Table and Incense Holders
Overview:
ReFactory was tasked by MYGroup with exploring creative applications for aluminium recovered from used medicine and vitamin blister packs collected through its nationwide recycling scheme.
Rather than hiding the material’s recycled origin behind a highly polished finish, the team explored a casting process that celebrated the unpredictable qualities of molten aluminium. The result was Melt: a sculptural coffee table, followed by a limited run of incense holders, both sharing the same visual language of a solid geometric form appearing to melt into a pool of metal.
How it was made
Aluminium is recovered and separated through the MYGroup process, then melted and poured into ingots. For Melt, the ingot was the starting point of the project, rather than the finish.
• The table (one-off piece) – Rather than one uniform casting, ReFactory built the panels up through multiple pours, each flowing and melting across the last before it cooled. What came out of the mould was kept rather than machined off. The cube appears to lose its geometry at the base and melt outwards across the floor, while its opposite tip pushes up through a reclaimed timber top.
• The incense holder (limited-edition run of 200) – The same geometry as the table, reduced to a small functional object. At this scale, the visual detail also performs a function: the metallic puddle becomes the tray that catches falling ash, while a small opening within the cube holds the incense stick, itself developed alongside Roots of Attma, a wellness brand within the MYGroup family.
Across both pieces, the team used over 13 kg of recovered aluminium, made up of over 100,000 former blister packs. Another example of how ReFactory can work with an existing waste or recycling stream and ask a more creative question than simply ‘how do we dispose of this’?
Turn waste into worth
Through skilled craft from joinery to stitching, materials are transformed into enduring, functional creations.