BRUT Collective (previously) returned to Milan Design Week for 2019 with Bodem (Soil), as the theme for their collection, inspired by its endless variety of colours, textures, surfaces, and patterns. In only their second year, the group of emerging Belgian designers was named Young Design Talent 2019 by Flanders DC and received a Henry Van De Velde Gold Award. Dedicated to the architectural, sculptural, and emotional potential of contemporary design, the group conceives a context in which the diverse characteristics of individual designers come together and coexist.

Designers Nel Verbeke, Linde Freya Tangelder, Charlotte Jonckheer and Bram Vanderbeke contributed to this year’s limited edition collection, inspired by the dusty charm of an archeological site. Pieces were displayed on separate plateaus painted in earthy tones of beige, brown, and rust, referring to the negative space that appears when artifacts and architectural remains are gradually brushed back to form.

The collection itself is diverse, contrasting rough, raw materials with more polished and perfected forms. Pedestals made of crumbling slabs of painted stone and roughly carved chunks of wood contrast smooth polished metal and neatly woven textiles, showing equal dedication to material in all stages and states. The designs are organic and primitive, as if they were unearthed in an archeological dig.

BRUT studied Teseum in Tongres, Belgium’s oldest city, where the remains of a Roman settlement are being excavated. The tones and textures that define the collection were found here, brought to life in their Milan display scenography through a collaboration with Belgian architectural finishes brand Antoine.