Beneath our feet lies a network our daily lives depend on

Hospitals, security systems, data centres and infrastructure: everything depends on electricity. Underground lies an enormous network of cables that makes our everyday lives possible. As we demand more and more from the electrical grid, this network is constantly being expanded, replaced and adapted.

These cables spent years underground. Unnoticed, but essential. Out of sight, out of mind.

Now they have been replaced. Cut loose from their “partners in power” and left without a function. Is this the end of their existence? After a lifetime of carrying electricity, these cables deserve a second life.

(Z)onderstroom gives discarded electrical cables a new function. Separated from the network they once operated in, they now become objects in their own right. No longer part of a larger system, they bring light, warmth and atmosphere on their own.

Frederik & Fossen is a collaboration between designers Bob Frederik and Eimert Fossen. Their work explores the relationship between materials, systems and everyday life. By questioning existing functions and looking closely at the materials and stories around us, they create objects that give familiar things a new meaning and role.