PLA vs Metal: Choosing the Right Material

People often ask whether AERIS is a PLA brand or a metal brand. The honest answer is that we are a design brand — and we use whichever material gives the design the best result.

Plant-based PLA and metal are two very different ways of making an object. Understanding what each does well is the reason our range can move from a delicate woven lampshade to a solid, weight-bearing table without compromise.

PLA: form and detail

Our sculptural shades are crafted in plant-based PLA, built up in fine detail. Its great strength is geometry — intricate weaves, curves and textures that would be difficult or impossible to make any other way. PLA lets us design forms that diffuse light beautifully and give each lamp its sculptural character. It is ideal for detail, texture and one-of-a-kind forms made to order.

Metal fabrication: strength and structure

Metal fabrication is a forming process: sheet and tube are cut, bent, formed and welded into a structure. Its strength is exactly that — strength. Aluminium, steel and galvanised iron give us load-bearing frames, clean straight lines and a substantial, planted feel. It is what makes a console or coffee table genuinely furniture rather than decoration.

Why we use both — often in one piece

The interesting work happens where the two meet. A sculptural PLA shade can sit on a fabricated metal base; a moulded detail can finish a metal object. Each material covers the other's limits: PLA brings the form, metal brings the structure, and assembly and finishing bring them together into a single resolved product.

The point is the design, not the material

So we do not start by choosing a material. We start with the design and ask which material — or combination — will realise it best. That is why PLA is one capability at AERIS, never the whole story.