A 7-sheet aluminum console by Arthur Moulucou of MLK Furniture, with 4 hand-sanded circular voids whose cutouts become the HEX400 Sofa Table

The D400 Console is built from 7 sheets of aluminum, each hand-sanded in Arthur Moulucou's workshop to produce a surface that reads as both industrial and worked by hand. The name describes the piece's defining formal element: 4 circular voids, each 400mm in diameter, cut through the body of the console at regular intervals. The cuts reduce material, change the visual weight of the object, and produce a consistent geometric rhythm across the console's face.

The circular cutouts are not discarded. Following MLK Furniture's Lowtech philosophy, the 40cm discs of aluminum removed from the D400 are repurposed as the tabletops for the complementary HEX400 Sofa Table. A single sheet of aluminum produces both the negative space in the console and the functional top of the side table, which means the manufacturing process generates no offcut waste. The approach is practical rather than symbolic: the material cost is fully accounted for in the design of 2 objects rather than one.

The hand-sanding of each sheet is the piece's other primary process. Aluminum at industrial scale is typically finished mechanically or left untouched. Sanding each sheet by hand introduces subtle variation to the surface, making the material legible as something that has been handled rather than only processed. The finish is what places the D400 between a fabricated industrial component and a made object.