Curiosity is a central tenant for good design: with making and crafting a manifestation of enquiry, learning, and inspiration. Some of our best designers double as their own historians and scientists, testing theories of gravity, chemistry, and evolution through their creative process. The latest collection from Ross Didier epitomises this duality, capturing biology and mathematics in a range of chairs and tables that look to be instant classics.

Introducing NAUTILOID, a curvaceous collection that blurs the lines between the organic and the precise. A study in spiralling construction, the forms of both chairs and tables are expressive and sculptural, seeming to have a central origin point that fans out to create a functional object. This is no accident, for this range is inspired by the creation of seashells: an exacting and mysterious process that is one of nature’s most ancient rituals.

In many ways, this range was the next step in Didier’s study of the art and the natural world, which was displayed to audiences in his ANTHROPOCENE display at this year’s Melbourne Design Week. For the collection, a material base of metal and polycarbonate has been intricately constructed, with pieces that lattice and bend to create unexpected forms based on the Fibonacci sequence. A pearly white powdercoat references the depths of the ocean, recalling the creation of shells and their iridescent finishes.

In function, the NAUTILOID seating range offers supreme comfort at multiple heights. Its latticed form extends out with wrap-around arms, blending down to slender rod framing to form seating options ranging from lounge to bar chair heights. Elegant and robust, the design is suitable for both indoors and outdoors, whilst its stack ability makes each chair appropriate for both residential and commercial spaces.

For the tables, Didier has constructed three different height frames that can be used independently as low tables, or joined together in any combination to create various heights that match with all the seating options. Inspired by the quiet logic of a scallop shell with its concave, fanning-out structure, these intelligent designs are thoughtfully resolved and beautifully engineered. The stacking design means each piece is able to seamlessly adapt onto itself, mirroring a shell’s creation as they stack atop each other, transforming from coffee tables, to dining, and bar heights.

Didier’s NAUTILOID collection is the epitome of artful construction, with each piece infused with a rhythmic precision that has become something of a trademark. This range – so closely inspired by nature – tells a story of its construction, a process rooted in the ancient arts of mother nature. Embedded in each of these pieces is a narrative of creation, a sequence of becoming that is told through the curving spirals that pass through biology and into the world of design.