Guillaume Bloget's Folded Aluminum Kayak Sharp Is Unsinkable

Paris-based industrial designer Guillaume Bloget has created Sharp, a kayak made from a single folded aluminum sheet, during a residency at Rhizome in France's Morvan region. The design eliminates the need for an internal frame or added flotation, as the double-wall structure formed by the folds provides rigidity and makes the vessel unsinkable. The hull's geometry was refined through iterative testing of half-scale models in the water before the full-scale version was built, prioritizing hydrodynamic performance. The only soft element is a cork seat that bridges the body's curves and the cockpit's angles. Production is on-demand by craftsman Antoine Rivière, who built the prototype, keeping the object within a workshop logic. Bloget, who founded his studio in 2018 after graduating from ENSCI-Les Ateliers, aims to establish economical relationships between material, technique, and use, a philosophy also reflected in his collective Typologie, which reached the Vitra Design Museum in 2019. Sharp stands out as a designed object in the realm of human-powered watercraft, with its method of folding distinguishing it from molded, laminated, or veneered alternatives. The aluminum's reflective surface interacts with water, adding an aesthetic dimension to its structural and hydrodynamic functions.