Koa Vases by ferm LIVING: Flattened Ceramic for Narrow Shelves

ferm LIVING's Koa vases look like small buildings cut from a block of clay: a rectangular body, one or two square necks, and a profile that almost disappears when you see it from the side. This piece looks at what defines the series, how the four sizes and colourways differ, and where a vase only 7 to 11 cm deep earns its place.

A vase drawn in elevation

Most vases start on the potter's wheel, so they are round and look the same from every angle. Koa works the other way. Each piece is a slab-sided box with a square neck rising from its shoulder, and every body is flattened: broad when you face it, shallow when you pass it. It reads more like an architect's elevation drawing than a turned pot.

ferm LIVING, the Copenhagen design company Trine Andersen founded in 2006, describes the shape as brutalist, and the reference holds up. Brutalism took its name from béton brut, the raw concrete that Le Corbusier and his post-war contemporaries left unpolished, and its buildings favoured blunt volumes, visible weight and surfaces that showed how they were made. Koa borrows that vocabulary at tabletop scale. Edges are hard, volumes are stacked, and nothing is rounded off for politeness.

The name points the same way. Koa means 'warrior' or 'valiant one', and the vases have an upright, slightly defiant stance. They are not cold, though. The glazed ceramic carries subtle imperfections, the walls ripple faintly and the edges are a touch uneven, so the geometry feels handmade rather than extruded. In low side light the glaze gathers at the corners and each plane takes the shadow differently, which is a large part of the appeal.

Four sizes, four colourways

Each Koa size comes in its own colour, so choosing a size also means choosing a glaze. All four are glazed ceramic.

The Koa Vase H17 cm – Black is the outlier: the lowest and widest of the group at 26 cm across, 17 cm high and 7.5 cm deep. Two square necks rise from one long block, so it holds two stems apart and makes a small composition on its own. At 1.69 kg it is also the heaviest, which keeps that wide body planted.

The Koa Vase H20 cm – Dark Sage measures 15 x 20 x 8.5 cm and weighs 1.03 kg, the lightest of the four. A single neck sits to one side of the shoulder, giving it an asymmetric, chimney-like silhouette. The green glaze is deep in the flat panels and paler where it thins over the edges, so the outline of the box is drawn in light.

The Koa Vase H29 cm – Off-White is 14 cm wide, 29 cm high and 11 cm deep, the deepest in the series, at 1.58 kg. Its speckled pale glaze sits close to stone or plaster, and it is the most tower-like of the group.

The Koa Vase H40 cm – Red Brown is the tallest and slimmest: 10 cm wide, 40 cm high and only 7 cm deep, at 1.47 kg. The red brown glaze runs in darker streaks down the long faces, and the small neck at the top turns the whole piece into a narrow column.

Made for narrow shelves

The flattened bodies are the practical point of the series. With a depth of 7 to 11 cm, a Koa fits surfaces where a round vase of the same height would hang over the edge: a picture ledge, a window sill, the front strip of a bookshelf, a slim hallway console or a mantelpiece already crowded with frames. Measure the shelf before you choose. The H40 cm and H17 cm, at 7 and 7.5 cm deep, suit the narrowest ledges, while the 11 cm H29 cm wants a little more room.

Because each vase is flat, it also has a front. Turn the broad face to the room and it reads as a full shape; turn it side-on and it becomes a sliver, which can be useful on a deep shelf where you want height without bulk. The tall H40 cm stands on a footprint of just 10 x 7 cm, so set it against a wall or a row of books rather than on an exposed edge.

The square necks are small, so Koa is a vase for single stems rather than bouquets. A branch of blossom, a dried umbel, a few grasses or one sculptural flower suits the scale and lets the ceramic stay the subject. It also works empty: ferm LIVING presents each size as a decorative object in its own right. A narrow bottle brush makes cleaning the necks easier when you change the water.

How the colourways group

The four glazes split naturally into two pairs. Black and off-white are the graphic pair, a strong contrast that suits pale walls and pale wood. Dark sage and red brown are the earthy pair, closer in tone, and they sit well with oak, linen and terracotta. Together, the four read as one family because the forms share the same language even where the colours do not.

For a full group, the depths help: since they vary by only a few centimetres, all four can stand in one line along a shelf edge, like a small skyline. Step the heights from 17 to 40 cm, or break the order and let the low black H17 cm anchor one end with the H40 cm at the other. In a group of three, leave out the colour that clashes with the room and keep even gaps between the pieces. The same thinking about height and colour applies to other vase families, as in our guide to grouping Kähler vases by height and colour.

The idea also comes in a smaller format. The Koa Vases set of three in mixed colours is listed at 18 x 16 x 5.2 cm and 0.48 kg, scaled for a desk, a bathroom shelf or a windowsill in a small flat, and the Koa Card Holders, also a set of three, carry the name over to holders for cards and notes.

Choosing your first Koa

If you want one piece that works alone, start with the H17 cm in black: its two necks make an arrangement without help. If your ledge is shallow and your ceiling high, the H40 cm in red brown gives the most height for the least depth. The H20 cm in dark sage is the easiest to place anywhere, and the H29 cm in off-white is the calmest choice for a pale interior. Then add the others one at a time, and see more ceramic, porcelain and glass vases in the Vases & Plant Pots collection.