Permanent Collection
D-Bay Design Museum
Shenzhen — 2025
A modular dumbbell and a fully disassemblable kettlebell combining bamboo and metal, exploring adjustable configurations and reversible construction through two complementary approaches to fitness equipment.
Originally conceived and designed by Roberto Rota and Ate Rote for Artop Design Group, the project was subsequently engineered and developed into a physical prototype by Artop in Shenzhen. In 2025, the prototype was acquired by Shenzhen Bay Culture Square for the permanent collection of the D-Bay Design Museum.
Located in Shenzhen—China’s first UNESCO City of Design—D-Bay is a major new cultural institution connecting contemporary Chinese design with an international design landscape.
The acquisition extends Ate Rote’s work-trajectory beyond industrial development, positioning it as records of an evolving dialogue between product innovation, technological culture and contemporary design in China.
The dumbbell combines a stabilised bamboo grip, branched die-cast aluminium bodies and chrome-plated stainless steel weights. Conceived with particular attention to a female fitness audience, it uses cylindrical weights with male–female threaded connections, allowing different loads and dimensions. Threaded pins connect the bodies to the grip, while their branching form evokes bamboo shoots through an allusive, visually essential language.
The kettlebell combines a CNC-machined, hollowed bamboo hemisphere, a cast-iron core and a tubular metal handle. The bamboo cavity stabilises the core through direct contact, while threaded steel studs connect it to the handle and close the assembly. The resulting isostatic structure requires no additional screws or adhesives and can be fully disassembled without damaging its components.
Together, the projects reinterpret fitness equipment through material hybridisation and reversible construction. Modularity and Design for Disassembly guide two complementary approaches, making each object’s assembly principles integral to its form and use.
Bamboo Dumbbell and Bamboo Kettlebell explore complementary principles of modularity and Design for Disassembly. Construction becomes their shared visual language: bamboo and metal retain distinct roles, while reversible connections enable adjustable configurations in the dumbbell and complete material separation in the kettlebell.
