Terra cotta has been making containers for roughly eight thousand years. Designer Benjamin Hubert decided to see what happens when you apply serious contemporary form-thinking to that ancient material. The answer is these four containers, which somehow feel both very old and very new at the same time.

Terra-cotta containers have been around for eons, and they continue to work really well as vessels. Here are some strikingly beautiful forms from designer Benjamin Hubert.

The four container typologies

One of the containers features a wide pouring area

Djembe-like container

A stout container for cookies

Small pouring device with a long neck

Lotsa pots