Japanese studio Nendo has created a series of four non-traditional hourglasses from blocks of transparent acrylic. The Time Variation project will be on display during Milan Design Week 2018.

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Intended to “change the perception of the flow of time,” amorphous hourglasses have cavities and passages of various sizes that change the speed and angle of the flow of sand. “The hourglasses from antiquity and are still used in our daily life, their shape has remained almost unchanged for thousands of years,” says Oki Sato (Nendo). “With the advent of the digital clock, the hourglass is more of a sentimental value, symbolizing the idea of ​​time.”

Cut out from the block of transparent acrylic, the internal cavity of each of the four blocks was manually polished with thin metal abrasive needles. The resulting forms are designed to create the impression that time moves even more freely than it used to be.

Exhibition “Variations of Time”, Superstudio Più, Milan, Via Tortona 27, April 17 - 21.