Hopper

Hopper – when beer culture meets design

1567: Pieter Bruegel the Elder paints "The Peasant Wedding". 2010: Dirk Wynants puts the final touches on Hopper. What is the link between these two events? The long tables round which farmers, hoppers, entire families... gather to enjoy a meal or a drink, or to party. Hoppers? Indeed, the hop and beer culture that is so closely linked with the Westhoek region (where Dirk Wynants lives and Extremis has its headquarters), was an additional source of inspiration besides the Bruegel paintings.

Familiar yet innovative

Hopper is yet another casebook example of the Extremis philosophy: gathering people round a piece of outdoor furniture which unites functionality and innovation. Hopper clearly bears resemblance to the traditional picnic tables everybody knows, but as is typical of Extremis it offers extra comfort. The four pass through zones make it easy to get in and out of Hopper without having to lift your leg over the bench or disturbing your table-companions. Its slanted legs and tabletop edges are a clear reference to the hop poles that are so characteristic of the Westhoek region. If you turn around, you can use the tabletop as a comfortable backrest...

Simplicity is the best policy

The first prototype of Hopper goes back no less than almost ten years. Simplifying the original idea has taken quite some time. Time Dirk Wynants also spent planting and growing his own hop garden. With his first harvest he brewed his very own beer and called it Tremist. There is nothing better than a local beer full of character to symbolize the link between authenticity and innovation. Or to drink a toast to yet another great tool for togetherness...

Facts & figures

· Hopper is available in four sizes, seating four, six, eight, or ten people.
· For balconies and public spaces in particular, Dirk Wynants has also created a Hopper version with a single bench and a tabletop that is only as wide as its leg.
· Hopper can be combined with a purpose-designed sunshade bearing strong resemblance to the hop-growing fields. Hopper Shade can also be used as a freestanding sunshade.
· The materials used are FSC labelled hardwood (Iroko), galvanised steel for the frame and the legs, which are also available in powder coated aluminium (white, red, and earth colour). Iroko wood has the advantage that you can make each tabletop segment from a single piece of wood.

The Tremist glass has been designed by none other than the famous designer Nedda El-Asmar.