Furniture

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Rooms

      Chatsworth House exhibition is a “collision of past and present”

      by

      An exhibition at Chatsworth House including designers including Michael Anastassiades, Faye Toogood and Formafantasma, features in this video produced by Dezeen for the stately home.

      Called Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth, the exhibition brings together a collection of furniture and objects displayed throughout and responding to Chatsworth House and its gardens.
      In total, 16 international designers and artists created pieces that respond to the interiors of the building.
      The exhibition introduces new art pieces and objects into the house and gardenSome responded by sourcing materials from the property itself, while others focussed on themes and ideas taken from decorations within the interiors.
      “The designers of the exhibition have responded to Chatsworth in all sorts of fascinating ways,” said co-curator of the exhibition Glenn Adamson.

      “Throughout you really see this kind of conversation between the present and the past.”
      Jay Sae Jung Oh designed a throne using musical instrumentsThe exhibition continues Chatsworth House’s 500-year-long history of working with leading artists and designers and collecting an extensive collection of art and objects.
      “An artist’s new work can create a new way of looking at these spaces,” said Chatsworth House Trust director Jane Marriott.
      “It can capture their imaginations and hopefully inspire them to explore Chatsworth in a different light.”
      Toogood’s monolithic furniture creates a pensive space within the exhibitionBritish designer Toogood took over Chatsworth’s chapel and adjoining Oak Room. As a nod to the historical use of the space as a place of worship and gathering, she created an installation of monolithic furniture made from bronze and stone.
      The sculptural forms were designed to evoke ecclesiastical structures and to reflect the local landscape.
      “These objects give a sense of meditative calm, a sense of massiveness or monumentality that feels appropriate to the space,” Adamson said.
      Dutch designer Joris Laarman designed a series of benches for the exhibitionTwo stone benches by Dutch designer Joris Laarman made from locally sourced gritstone , which was the material used to build the house itself, were placed in Chatsworth House’s gardens.
      The surfaces of the benches were carved with undulating patterns in which moss and lichen have been planted and will continue to grow over time.
      Other objects in the exhibition include a throne-like seat wrapped in leather made from musical instruments by Jay Sae Jung Oh, a fibrous cabinet designed by Fernando Laposse, and sinuous steam-wood sculptures by Irish furniture maker Joseph Walsh.
      Laposse’s fluffy cabinet is made from agave plant fibresAnother section of the exhibition, which occupy Chatsworth’s Sculpture Gallery built in the early 19th century, features pieces by British designer Samuel Ross.
      Ross’s pieces were designed to echo the surrounding sculptures, mimicking their form to invite viewers to imagine the body that would recline on them. The designer has used a material palette of stone and marble to further reflect the sculptures within the gallery.
      Chatsworth’s collection contains art and design pieces spanning 4,000 years”It’s a kind of collision of past and present, of the artisanal with the technological, the classical with the industrial,” Adamson said.
      “It’s a great example of how the show in general tries to talk across generations, across centuries.”
      Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth is on display at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire until 1 October 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
      Photography is courtesy of the Chatsworth House Trust.
      Partnership content
      This video was produced by Dezeen for Chatsworth House as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen’s partnership content here.

      Read more: More

    • 138 Shares109 Views

      in Rooms

      Karimoku opens Kyoto showroom informed by traditional houses and temple gardens

      by

      Designer Keiji Ashizawa has created the interior of Japanese furniture brand Karimoku’s second showroom, which features a combination of its own wooden furniture and pieces by local artists and artisans.

      Set in a three-storey building, the brand describes Karimoku Commons Kyoto as a “hybrid space”, which will function as a showroom and also house office spaces for employees.
      The space is located inside a former machiya – a traditional Japanese wooden townhouse – in Kyoto, a city known for its temples, Shinto shrines and gardens.
      The showroom is located in a Kyoto townhouseAshizawa, who has worked with Karimoku for years and also designed its first showroom in Tokyo, looked to the history of both the city and the building when designing the interior.
      “I really wanted to use the language of the townhouse and also took inspiration from Kyoto gardens,” Ashizawa told Dezeen.

      For the showroom’s ground floor area, he drew on the doma areas in traditional Japanese homes, which had bare dirt floors and functioned as a bridge between the indoors and the outdoors.
      It features wood furniture and wood panelling by KarimokuHere, Ashizawa placed furniture in light-coloured wood, including chairs by British architect Norman Foster and pieces by Danish studio Norm Architects and Ashizawa himself.
      The floor is grey concrete, which was matched by pale-grey plaster walls and a ceiling in the same colour.
      Art and ceramics by Japanese artists decorate the spaceWooden slats, of a kind traditionally used in Kyoto homes and stores to let light into buildings while maintaining privacy, cover parts of the glazing at the front of the room.
      Light wooden panelling by Karimoku hides built-in storage spaces and functions as a shelf.
      The first floor has a darker colour paletteOn the first floor, Ashizawa chose to use a darker colour palette, with furniture pieces in smoked oak wood and flooring and wall panels in dark wood.
      “When you visit a tourism house or a temple in Kyoto, the old wood, like on the temple floors, is a very dark colour,” he said. “I thought such a colour had to be the key colour [for the project].”
      The layout of this area also drew on the walkways and paths of Kyoto’s temple gardens.
      “It’s more of a guide to how to articulate the space,” Ashizawa explained. “We can think of the furniture as an art piece or a stone – it’s a kind of installation.”
      A wall alcove functions as a tokonoma display spaceThe top floor of Karimoku Commons Kyoto will function as a “library space” and showcase the latest collections and collaborations from the contemporary Case Study, Karimoku New Standard, MAS and Ishinomaki Laboratory brands.
      Throughout the showroom, earthy ceramics and rough-hewn sculptures by Japanese artists were used as decoration, which add to the organic feel brought by the wood.

      Keiji Ashizawa draws on “whiteness of tofu” for tactile Saga Hirakawaya restaurant

      Pieces by ceramics brand Nota Shop in the nearby Shiga prefecture and vases by Kyoto artist Ai Ono were among the objects chosen for the space by stylist Yumi Nakata, who worked with Ashizawa on the project.
      These were placed on tables and shelves as well as in wall recesses informed by traditional Japanese tokonoma alcoves, where homeowners would display artistic objects.
      Keiji Ashizawa designed the interior of the showroom”There are so many places in which to show something,” Ashizawa said of Karimoku Commons Kyoto.
      “In a traditional Japanese house, there are many spaces like this, showing paintings, ceramics or flowers, which I think is one of the beauties of the culture of the Japanese house. In many ways, we tried to make such a space.”
      The top floor displays a variety of furniture piecesKarimoku, which is Japan’s largest wooden furniture brand, started out making traditional Japanese furniture.
      It now also works with a number of designers on the more contemporary sub-brands Case Study, Karimoku New Standard, MAS and Ishinomaki Laboratory, which are the four brands that will be sold in the Karimoku Commons Kyoto showroom.
      The Kyoto space is Karimoku’s second showroom after TokyoAshikawa hopes the space will help to promote a modern design aesthetic.
      “Karimoku is trying to promote modern furniture in modern life,” he said. “I need to explain about the Japanese living space situation – for example, in 1960, sixty years ago, we didn’t have much furniture in the living space.”
      “And then the modern living space came to Japan and people started buying their tables, chairs and even the sofa; it’s quite new, so people don’t necessarily understand how to use a sofa,” he added.
      “Japanese living spaces can be too messy, so it’s quite nice to show them like this.”
      Previous projects by Ashizawa include a curve-shaped tofu restaurant and a Blue Bottle Coffee shop in Kobe. Karimoku recently collaborated with Foster on a collection of furniture used in the architect’s Foster Retreat in Martha’s Vineyard.
      The photography is by Tomooki Kengaku.

      Read more: More

    • 163 Shares189 Views

      in Rooms

      Design Brut: Philia & Kids showcases sculptural furniture designed by “rather wise” children

      by

      Designers Antoine Behaghel and Alexis Foiny have created sculptural olive wood furniture based solely on drawings by children for a Galerie Philia exhibition.

      Design Brut: Philia & Kids is the inaugural programme of a non-profit initiative conceived by international art gallery Galerie Philia that aims to engage children in design.
      Design Brut: Philia & Kids was an exhibition on display in ParisThe project’s first edition invited 19 kids from a primary school in the Breil-sur-Roya village in France to design sculptural furniture that was exhibited at Espace Meyer Zafra in Paris from November until last week.
      Informed by the late French painter Jean Dubuffet, the initiative is named after art brut – or “raw art” – Dubuffet’s name for art created outside of academic limitations, such as art made by children.
      The furniture was constructed using children’s drawingsParticipants aged six to seven took part in a workshop over five months, where they were asked to draw their own interpretations of sculptural design under the supervision of BehaghelFoiny Studio founders Antoine Behaghel and Alexis Foiny and their teacher Virgile Ganne.

      The drawings range from a crocodile-like bench to colourful dining chairs and spikier, more abstract forms.
      “Several shepherds’ children drew hooves on the legs of the furniture, or horns on the backs of the chairs,” noticed Behaghel and Foiny.
      “Others, living near olive groves and the surrounding forest, drew leaves and branches on their furniture,” they told Dezeen.
      Nineteen children took part in the projectThe designers explained that they encouraged the kids to “assert their own creativity” as well as observe their classmates’ drawings and borrow forms from each other to make the design experience collaborative.
      “Against all odds, we realised that, when faced with furniture design, the children’s first intentions were rather wise, and copied the shapes of furniture they saw every day,” they said.
      Antoine Behaghel and Alexis Foiny constructed the furniture from olive woodAfter this, Behaghel and Foiny sorted the drawings into different furniture typologies including tables, chairs, stools, coat racks and pedestal tables, as well as categorising the creations by “spirits and styles”.
      The pair then worked with a cabinetmaker in Breil-sur-Roya to bring the drawings to life by making physical furniture out of local olive wood.
      “In some places, we shrank or enlarged the silhouettes drawn by the children, to better distribute the weight,” noted the designers.

      Almaborealis designs sew-your-own clothing kit for children

      During this process, the children were taken on a tour of a local sawmill and shown every stage of the production process in order to familiarise them with carpentry.
      Behaghel and Foiny explained that olive wood was chosen for its cultural significance to Breil-sur-Roya, which is known as the “pays des oliviers” (olive tree country).
      The designers painted the material in various colourful shades that aimed to subtly tint, rather than conceal, its veiny surface.
      “It seemed to us very relevant to associate the intervention of very young children wiht a thousand-year-old wood!” noted the designers.
      The pieces range from recognisable silhouettes to more abstract formsThe pair hopes that the workshop will have taught the children about the importance of furniture design while showcasing their personal creativity without limitations.
      “In the end, the children’s drawings showed a real spontaneity,” reflected Behaghel and Foiny.
      “They are both free from technical reflexes and therefore led us to take risks and at the same time detached from the aesthetic automatisms that we impose on ourselves more or less consciously as professional designers,” they added.
      “They led us to extract ourselves from standardisation of tastes and beauty, to play more with imbalances and proportions.”
      Subtle colour was used to brighten each wooden pieceThis is not the first time that children have tried their hand at chair design. Third and fourth graders at a school in New York have designed a number of seating collections under the supervision of art instructor Bruce Edelstein, including chairs with horns and other wooden seats.
      The photography is by Maison Mouton Noir. 
      Design Brut: Philia & Kids was on display at Espace Meyer Zafra from 10 November to 8 December 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

      Read more: More

    • 88 Shares189 Views

      in Rooms

      Ten contemporary interiors with innovative stone furniture

      by

      Spinning top-shaped granite chairs, marble shelves and a candy-coloured onyx counter are among the stone furniture pieces used for the interiors in our latest lookbook.

      Stone, especially marble, has long been used for dining and coffee tables, as well as for countertops. But a number of contemporary designers are now experimenting with bolder and more unusual stone furnishings.
      The examples in this lookbook range from a stone seat in a rural home built for an older couple to a striking granite counter in a Finnish clothing store and multicoloured swivelling marble chairs.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring ten interiors that make use of the colour of the year, homes with sliding doors and lounge areas with suspended fireplaces.
      Photo is by Margarita NikitakiEsperinos, Greece, by Stamos Michael

      Greek designer Stamos Michael designed the Esperinos guesthouse in Athens with a mix of furniture classics and his own designs. These include a small stool the designer made from two blocks of stone found in a quarry in Tinos, a Greek island in the Aegean sea.
      The stool’s rough texture matches the house’s structural stone shell, which Michael has displayed by carving out small sections of the walls.
      Find out more about Esperinos ›
      Photo is by Rory GardinerArmadillo showroom, Australia, by Studio Goss
      This Sydney showroom has a sparse, simple material palette of concrete, plaster and tiled surfaces that designers Studio Goss created to function as a backdrop to the rugs on show.
      In front of a tiled wall, a chunky stone table is surrounded by graphic black chairs, while an oversized paper lantern adds another geometric touch to the interior design.
      Find out more about Armadillo showroom ›
      Photo is by Ed ReeveSwivel, UK, by Sabine Marcelis
      Rotating chairs made from natural stone including granite, quartzite, marble and travertine make up the Swivel furniture installation by designer Sabine Marcelis.
      The colourful chairs were installed in St Giles Square as part of this year’s London Design Festival. “The main concept was to inject some colour, fun, lightheartedness and liveliness into the square – in an adult playground way,” Marcelis said.
      Find out more about Swivel ›
      Photo is by Simone BossiMA House, France, by Timothee Mercier
      A ruined farmhouse in France was turned into an “intimate refuge” named MA House by architect Timothee Mercier for his parents.
      In the peaceful white living room, white cushions were inserted into a blocky stone plinth to form a minimalist sofa with an angular shape.
      Find out more about MA House ›
      Photo is by Thibault De Schepper&C office, the Netherlands, by Anne Claus Interiors
      Pastel-hued onyx slabs decorate the stripy bar counter in Dutch media company &C’s hybrid office, store and cafe in Amsterdam, which was created by designer Anne Claus Interiors.
      The studio also used the material for display plinths in the shop, round tabletops in the cafe and for the boardroom’s table. The colours of the joyful stone furniture were chosen as they suit the &C brand.
      Find out more about &C office ›

      The Audo, Denmark, by Menu and Norm Architects
      The interior of Danish boutique hotel The Audo, designed by local studio Norm Architects as the headquarters for design brand Menu, features multiple elegant coffee tables made from black and white marble slabs.
      These veiny marble tables complement tactile white boucle sofas and the terracotta plaster walls in the earth-coloured bedrooms.
      Find out more about The Audo ›
      Photography is by Mikko RyhänenNanso, Finland, by Studio Joanna Laajisto
      Studio Joanna Laajisto’s interior design for the Nanso womenswear store in Helsinki, Finland, features plenty of natural materials, including a chunky service counter made from red granite from the nearby town of Mäntsälä.
      The studio also used the same stone to create a display stand, placing a slab atop a small metal box to form a sculptural and practical furniture piece.
      Find out more about Nanso ›

      Casa Salvatori, Italy, by Elissa Ossino Studio
      This Milanese apartment, filled with marble artworks and furniture, is fittingly owned by the head of Italian stone brand Salvatori. Designer Elissa Ossino Studio transformed the white apartment by using the brand’s own marble collection in creative ways.
      A Colonnata oak bookshelf features veiny marble shelf dividers in different colours, creating a sculptural piece that is as eye-catching when it’s empty as when it’s filled with books.
      Find out more about Casa Salvatori ›

      Spun chair, Singapore, by Heatherwick Studio
      London-based Heatherwick Studio reproduced its spinning top-shaped Spun chairs in marble for the garden of the brand’s EDEN skyscraper in Singapore.
      “As gardens are places for rest and contemplation, a seat seemed like a natural solution that would encourage people to either sit for a moment of quiet contemplation or to perhaps engage in a conversation with a neighbour,” Tom Glover, project leader at Heatherwick Studio, told Dezeen.
      Find out more about Spun chair ›

      Glogauer apartment, Germany, by White Arrow
      A circular travertine table in a decorative beige hue is matched with cane dining chairs inside the Glogauer apartment in Berlin, which New York studio White Arrow renovated for a young family.
      The flat was gutted to create more living space, though the designers preserved its existing high ceilings, ornate doorframes and coving. Vintage furnishings were used to decorate the new interior.
      Find out more about Glogauer apartment ›
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring ten interiors that make use of the colour of the year, homes with sliding doors and lounge areas with suspended fireplaces.

      Read more: More

    • 163 Shares99 Views

      in Rooms

      Antti and Vuokko Nurmesniemi's “common design philosophy” showcased at Helsinki Design Museum retrospective

      by

      A vivid orange Helsinki subway seat and an iconic timber sauna stool are among the pieces in this exhibition of work by design duo and couple Antti and Vuokko Nurmesniemi.

      Various works by the late interior architect Antti Nurmesniemi and textile designer Vuokko Nurmesniemi are presented in this eponymous exhibition at Helsinki Design Museum, which charts the pair’s work from the 1950s to the 2000s.
      An orange Helsinki subway seat is included in the exhibition. Photo is by Mari KallionpääFrom kitchen crockery to colourful textiles, the Nurmesniemis created a broad range of designs together and individually over their solo and shared careers before Antti’s death in 2003.
      “The exhibition is important because there has never been a joint retrospective exhibition about this central designer couple in Finnish design history,” curator Susanna Aaltonen told Dezeen.
      Colourful garments by Vuokko also featureArranged across a gallery at Helsinki Design Museum, the show includes a striking orange subway seat that Antti created in 1982 in collaboration with industrial designer Börje Rajalin – a model that is still in use on Helsinki transportation today.

      Visitors can also find an extensive cluster of garments featuring bright hues and geometric patterns, designed by Vuokko for her fashion label Vuokko Oy, which she founded in 1964.
      Antti’s red Pehtoori coffee pot is well-known in Finland. Photo is by Mari KallionpääA red Pehtoori coffee pot from 1957 by Antti is also on display – described by Aaltonen as a product that is “often highlighted as Finland’s early industrial design item” – as well as elegant models of electricity pylons created with interior architect Jorma Valkama in 1997.
      Also central to the exhibition are photographs of and furniture from Studio Home Nurmesniemi, the couple’s live-work home and atelier in Kulosaari, Helsinki, which was completed in 1975.
      Lounge chairs by the couple are defined by black, white and red pinstripesThese pieces include signature wooden sauna stools and 1980s geometric lounge chairs designed by Antti and upholstered in Vuokko Oy pinstripe fabrics.
      This furniture is displayed alongside archival imagery of the designers in their modernist house – a setting still used for Vyokko Oy photoshoots.

      Fyra celebrates bohemian history of Helsinki’s Hotel Torni in contemporary revamp

      “All in all, the couple’s shared home and studio house is the finest example of the [their] lifestyle dedicated to design,” reflected Aaltonen.
      “I hope that the exhibition will increase people’s understanding of Finnish cultural heritage and that people will also learn to cherish and preserve objects better, especially interiors.”
      Artefacts on display vary from furniture to pylon scale modelsOther shows at Helsinki Design Museum include a recent exhibition by design studio Formafantasma and furniture brand Artek and a temporary “insect hotel” installation that is currently on display outside the museum.
      Previous retrospectives at the museum include one centred on the plastic furniture and chairs of Finnish designer Eero Aarino.
      The exhibition is held at Helsinki Design MuseumAntti + Vuokko Nurmesniemi is on display at Helsinki Design Museum from 28 October 2022 to 9 March 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
      The photography is by Paavo Lehtonen unless otherwise stated. 

      Read more: More

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in Rooms

      Norman Foster creates angular retreat in Martha's Vineyard for “friends of the Foster family”

      by

      Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Norman Foster has designed the Foster Retreat in Martha’s Vineyard as a holiday home for his friends and those of the Norman Foster Foundation, which features furniture designed by the architect for Karimoku.

      Named the Foster Retreat, the mono-pitch roofed building in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, was built opposite Foster’s US home.
      The building draws on traditional wood structuresThe home was formed from a series of angled steel beams that are connected by timber beams with smooth timber louvres enclosing an outdoor patio space.
      According to Foster, the holiday home’s shape was informed by North American barn structures, with large amounts of timber chosen to reference Martha’s Vineyard’s traditional wood-boarded structures and its sustainability credentials.
      Pale wood was used inside Foster Retreat”The retreat takes inspiration from the generous wooden barn structures of North America and combines that tradition of timber construction with a small amount of steel in the form of skinny portal frames which touch the ground lightly,” said Foster, who is the founder of UK studio Foster + Partners.

      “Wood was the obvious choice not only for reasons of sustainability but also as a direct reference to the traditional buildings that characterise the island.”
      The building has a visible gridThe site levels around Foster Retreat, which will be used as a private residence for friends of Foster’s family and of the Norman Foster Foundation, were contoured to hide the building from the roadside and situate it within the landscape.
      The studio also added indigenous plants to the site, as well as a bank of solar panels that together with “a high level of insulation and shading” helps the building be more sustainable, according to Foster.
      Norman Foster designed the NF Collection for KarimokuInside the building, the holiday home has white walls with pale wood panels and wooden floors.
      To match the pared-back material palette of the house’s exterior and interior, Foster designed a wooden furniture collection named NF Collection together with Japanese furniture brand Karimoku.

      Foster + Partners creates geodesic dog kennel as “architecture in miniature”

      The collection comprises a dining chair, two stools, a lounge chair, a sofa, and a dining table, all of which feature pale “skeletal” timber frames and padded upholstery.
      “The wood-based furniture I designed for Karimoku is an extension of the philosophy behind the building,” Foster explained.
      “lt has always seemed to me that there is a commonality between the American Shaker Movement and traditional Japanese furniture. Given my own admiration for the qualities of historic Japanese architecture, there are evident cultural links.”
      The furniture has skeletal frames and white padding. Photo is by Chuck ChoiThe collection was developed as Foster had trouble finding suitable furniture for the space.
      “When we started to think about what type of furniture could best fit in the spaces created in the Foster Retreat, Martha’s Vineyard, we realised that there was no single specific collection in existence that could be used for the different uses of the building, so I decided to develop a bespoke family of furniture,” Foster explained.
      “Timber was a natural choice to match the spirit of the building.”
      Foster Retreat was designed as a private residenceFoster Retreat is Karimoku’s seventh case study project, which sees the studio work together with architects on bespoke furniture collections.
      “I see the collaboration with NF as an important step for us as a brand – not only do we venture into a new area with the case at Martha’s Vineyard, but we also show how the brand can accomodate a more diverse furniture collection, showcasing the unique design languages of the individual studios, yet still maintaining a red thread throughout the collection in the use of materials, excellent craftsmanship and high quality,” Karimoku creative director Frederik Werner told Dezeen.
      The collection marks Karimoku’s seventh case study. Photo is by Chuck ChoiThe NF Collection will also be shown in an exhibition at Karimoku Commons in Tokyo, the brand’s retail and showroom space. Karimoku was one of a number of Japanese brands that showed at this year’s Salone del Mobile furniture fair as the focus on the European market grows.
      One of the world’s best-known architects, Foster leads the UK’s largest studio Foster + Partners. The studio’s recent projects include 425 Park Avenue, which is the “first full-block office building” to be built on Park Avenue in over 50 years, and the tallest building in the EU, the Varso Tower in Warsaw.
      The photography is by Marc Fairstein unless stated otherwise. All photography courtesy of the Norman Foster Foundation.
      The Norman Foster x Karimoku exhibition is at Karimoku Commons from 21 October to 9 December. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

      Read more: More

    • 150 Shares179 Views

      in Rooms

      Ten designers create products from a single dying ash tree for SCP

      by

      Furniture company SCP has tasked a group of British designers including Faye Toogood and Sebastian Cox to craft objects from the wood of a tree infected with ash dieback disease for this year’s London Design Festival.

      The resulting pieces, ranging from furniture and lighting to decorative objects, are currently on display as part of the One Tree exhibition the brand is hosting in its Shoreditch showroom.
      One Tree includes works by Moe Redish (above) and Wilkinson & Rivera (top)The project saw ten designers make use of a tree on SCP founder Sheridan Coakley’s property, which had to be felled after being infected with a highly destructive fungal disease called ash dieback. Eventually, this is expected to kill around 80 per cent of ash trees in the UK.
      “Most fallen ash trees are getting just cut down and used for firewood,” Coakley told Dezeen. “But rather than burning the tree or letting it rot, we wanted to capture the carbon that’s in the wood by making something out of it.”
      Faye Toogood made an organic love seat from a tree forkA group of ten designers and makers, including Cox and Toogood alongside industrial designer Matthew Hilton, carpenter Poppy Booth and design duo Wilkinson & Rivera, was invited to observe the tree being felled in April 2022 and to select the pieces of timber they wanted to use.

      Toogood created a stool from the fork of the tree, which forms a natural love seat. This effect was highlighted by stripping off the bark of the wood but leaving its shape largely unadulterated.
      Flat facets allow the wood grain to become decoration in Sarah Kay’s piecesAlso making use of the thick, solid parts of the tree was designer and maker Sarah Kay, who chose to bisect a log to create a series of geometric side tables.
      The logs were given flat facets to highlight the gnarled grain of the wood. This swirling, almost psychedelic graining is also apparent in Wilkinson & Rivera’s three-seater bench.
      Poppy Booth’s cupboard is based on an abstract paintingHusband-and-wife duo Grant Wilkinson and Teresa River used rudimentary forms to construct the bench, allowing the grain of the wood to serve as decoration.
      Another furniture piece in the exhibition is a corner cupboard designed by Poppy Booth based on Black Square – an abstract painting by Russian-Ukrainian artist Kazimir Malevich from 1915.
      Mirroring the painting, the cupboard front features a square of blackened ash surrounded by a non-burnt frame. The piece is intended sit high up in the corner of a room to act as a kind of memorial for all the ash trees killed by the dieback.
      Max Bainbridge created a bench, vessels and wall pieceEast London designer Moe Redish created a series of glass vases and vessels, which were mouth-blown into natural voids in the wood made by birds, insects, weather damage and the fungus that causes ash dieback.
      Taking a similar approach, artist and craftsman Max Bainbridge chose to work with pieces of the tree that had apparent fissures, splits and raw edges, and turned them into a series of organically shaped vessels, a bench and a wall piece called Portrait of Ash.

      Two Kettles, No Sofa installation playfully explores tensions between cohabiting couples

      A number of designers took a more sculptural approach, with Oscar Coakley creating a giant wall fixture in the shape of an acid-house smiley while Hilton designed a helical Jenga-like sculpture made from repeating elements of carved wood.
      Cox, who took charge of cutting up the ash tree using his portable sawmill and dried all of the wood for the exhibition in his South London studio, created two lights using the branches that were left behind after all the other designers had made their selections.
      Long sections from the tree’s branches were used for Sebastian Cox’s lightsThe branches were cut into thin, raw-edge slivers and fashioned into triangular prisms to act as shades for a pendant and standing lamp.
      The pieces are being presented as part of SCP’s Almost Instinct showcase at LDF and are all for sale, with the aim of putting a selection of the items into production in the future.
      Oscar Coakley created a wall fixture in the shape of a smiley”I think this is a project that might continue,” Sheridan Coakley said. “There are other trees that have got to come down, why not make something with them?”
      This year’s LDF saw a slew of brands open their showrooms and run events, many returning for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
      All the pieces in SCP’s show were made using wood from this ash treeOther projects on show as part of the festival include an installation by architecture studio Stanton Williams that was informed by Stonehenge and Shakespearian theatres, and an exhibition of furniture by James Shaw that pokes fun at the tensions that arise between cohabiting couples.
      Photography is by Robbie Wallace.
      One Tree is on show between 17 and 25 September as part of London Design Festival. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

      Read more: More

    • 175 Shares179 Views

      in Rooms

      Jan Hendzel tracks down “super special” London timbers to overhaul Town Hall Hotel suites

      by

      Reclaimed architectural timber and wood from a felled street tree form the furnishings of two hotel suites that designer Jan Hendzel has revamped for London’s Town Hall Hotel in time for London Design Festival.

      Suites 109 and 111 are set on the first floor of the Town Hall Hotel, which is housed in a converted Grade II-listed town hall in Bethnal Green dating back to 1910.
      Each of the apartment-style suites features a living room with a kitchen alongside a bedroom and en-suite, which Hendzel has outfitted with bespoke furnishings. Like all of the furniture maker’s pieces, these are crafted exclusively from British timbers.
      Jan Hendzel has overhauled suites 109 (top) and 111 (above) of the Town Hall HotelBut for his first interiors project, Hendzel took an even more hyper-local approach with the aim of finding all of the necessary products inside the M25 – the motorway that encircles the British capital.
      “We started out with the idea that we could source everything within London,” he told Dezeen during a tour of the suites.

      “Some timbers have come from Denmark Hill, some are reclaimed from Shoreditch. And we used Pickleson Paint, which is a company just around the corner, literally two minutes from here.”
      The living area of suite 111 features green upholstery by Yarn CollectiveThe reclaimed timber came in the form of pinewood roof joists and columns, which Hendzel found at an architectural salvage yard.
      These had to be scanned with a metal detector to remove any nails or screws so they could be machined into side tables and tactile wire-brushed domes used to decorate the suites’ coffee tables.
      Rippled wooden fronts finish the kitchen in both suitesIn Suite 111, both the dining table and the rippled kitchen fronts are made from one of the many plane trees that line the capital’s streets, giving them the nickname London plane.
      “This London plane is super special because it has come from a tree that was taken up outside Denmark Hill train station in Camberwell,” Hendzel explained. “We couldn’t find timber from Bethnal Green but it’s the closest we could get.”
      The dining table in suite 111 is made from London planeFor other pieces, materials had to be sourced from further afield – although all are either made in the UK or by UK-based brands.
      Hendzel used British ash and elm to craft mirrors and benches with intricate hand-carved grooves for the suites, while the patterned rugs in the living areas come from West London studio A Rum Fellow via Nepal.
      “People in the UK don’t make rugs, so you have to go further afield,” Hendzel said. “Same with the upholstery fabrics. You could get them here but if they are quadruple your budget, it’s inaccessible.”

      Jan Hendzel explores potential of British hardwood in Bowater furniture collection

      Hendzel’s aim for the interior scheme was to create a calm, pared-back version of a hotel room, stripping away all of the “extra stuff” and instead creating interest through rich textural contrasts.
      This is especially evident in the bespoke furniture pieces, which will now become part of his studio’s permanent collection.
      Among them is the Wharf coffee table with its reclaimed wooden domes, worked with a wire brush to expose the intricate graining of the old-growth timber and offset against a naturally rippled tabletop.
      “It’s a genetic defect of the timber, but it makes it extra special and catches your eye,” Hendzel said.
      Grooves were hand-carved into the surfaces of mirrors and benches featured throughout the suitesThe coffee table, much like the nearby Peng dining chair, is finished with faceted knife-drawn edges reminiscent of traditional stone carving techniques. But while the table has a matt finish, the chair is finished with beeswax so its facets will reflect the light.
      Unexpected details such as loose-tongue joints, typically used to make tables, distinguish the Mowlavi sofa and armchair, while circular dowels draw attention to the wedge joint holding together their frames.
      Reclaimed architectural timber was used to bedside tables in room 109Alongside the bespoke pieces, Hendzel incorporated existing furniture pieces such as the dresser from his Bowater collection, presented at LDF in 2020. Its distinctive undulating exterior was also translated into headboards for the bedrooms and cabinet fronts for the kitchens.
      These are paired with crinoid marble worktops from the Mandale quarry in Derby, with roughly-hewn edges offset against a perfectly smooth surface that reveals the fossils calcified within.
      “It’s a kajillion years old and it’s got all these creatures from many moons ago that have fallen into the mud and died,” Hendzel said. “But then, when they get polished up, they look kind of like Ren and Stimpy.”
      A rippled headboard features in both suitesGoing forwards, the Town Hall Hotel plans to recruit other local designers to overhaul its remaining 94 rooms.
      Other installations on show as part of LDF this year include a collection of rotating public seating made from blocks of granite by designer Sabine Marcelis and an exhibition featuring “sympathetic repairs” of sentimental objects as the V&A museum.
      The photography is by Fergus Coyle.
      London Design Festival 2022 takes place from 17-25 September 2022. See our London Design Festival 2022 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

      Read more: More