Outdoor products designed to play with fire

With air quality and fire safety two of the biggest (and most restrictive) regulatory necessities of modern construction, architecture and interior products, the rules controlling them are understandably tight. The natural power and sensual beauty of naked fire can be fully appreciated, however, in larger, open-air outdoor environments where there’s near-unlimited oxygen and tougher all-weather materials. These are the different ways fire can improve the light, comfort and warmth of outdoor spaces, and mimic the aspects of interior life we take for granted.

Ambient outdoor lighting brings a mysterious and magical atmosphere to gardens, terraces and all outdoor spaces, but standalone electrical lighting can be difficult to install and impossible to move once there. By utilising the soft flicker of a natural flame, outdoor oil lamps like Poppy from Northern light the way gently.

With safety in mind, Poppy protects its oil cache with a childproof lid, while candle-powered lanterns like Switch by Atmosphera encase the flame in an aluminium dome, causing its hexagonal pattern to dance on the surrounding scene like dappled light through the leaves of a tree.

To turn up the drama when outlining outdoor spaces, however, fire torches like the gas-powered DeLIGHT 30 Gassäule from Attika Feuer can be positioned like sentries guarding a doorway, or in a larger arc to set the mood for a friendly fight to the death. To add a Middle Ages look to outdoor space, however, wood-burning torches like Röshults’ Pole Firebasket take a little more effort to fuel and light, but cause a much more dramatic scene.

By simply removing the pole from the traditional wood-fuelled torch, Metalfire creates the formidable simplicity of the Anemone fire basket. Anemone’s upturned claws of forged steel circle around the fuel source with enough space for incoming oxygen to feed the fire, and its mesmerising flames to pass the other way. With the XL version as wide as 145cm in diameter, Anemone is suitable for extra-large outdoor events needing to make extra-large impressions.

Back at home, meanwhile, fire tables integrate their flames into a tabletop to give surrounding users a place for their hot cocoa. The clean burn of gas-lit options like in|graus’ FireTable avoid the smoke-filled eyes from wood-burning fire pits… but to choose the functional advantage of gas is to miss out on the authentic ambience of wood. With stronger, higher, wilder flames and a smell that takes you back to childhood bonfires, it’s no wonder fire pits like GlammFire’s Circus come with integrated stool seating to pitch users forward and lose themselves in the fire.

Wood-fuelled fire pits might be wilder than gas, but there are an array of tools and accessories on the market to put control back into the firemaster’s gloves. As well as heatproof hardware, the right tongs and pokers are the mark of the more serious and experienced, but there’s nothing more elementally satisfying than just poking the fire with a big stick. The aluminium Takk poker from Harrie Leenders meets this desire for the pretence of nature, by allowing users to safely control the flames, without getting burned with embarrassment.

Along with warmth and light, the other main function of humanity’s oldest invention, is to cook our food. Contemporary barbecues prove this first evolutionary tool is still improving. Now rebranding as outdoor kitchens, set-ups like Röshults’ modular open kitchen combines kitchen-like storage with various 50sqcm elements like hobs, drawers, chopping boards, gas and charcoal grills and even the kitchen sink.

For forest-dwelling users with plenty of deadwood to clear, along with stuffing it under food and lighting it all up in a basket to warm up cold autumn evenings, another use for it is to warm up water. Weltevree’s Dutchtub range features a natural circulation coil that removes the old and cold from the bottom of the tub, passes it through a metal tube above a log fire, and floods the now warmed water back in at the top to replace it.

Users with enough wood to light, cook and keep both their air and water warm need somewhere to store it. With a warm mixture of oranges and yellows in interlocking graphic patterns, wood stores make surprisingly decorative features. Heavy-duty Wood Storage from OFYR keeps aesthetic drying wood safe on open shelves, while less attractive but useful tools and materials are kept out of sight behind a hinged door.

It can be more helpful, however, to keep logs where they’re needed most. Zero by AK47 integrates table, fire and log store, meaning pyro-fans have no cause to leave their domain untended to retrieve more fuel.

© Architonic