Nine international designers create original tables and seating designs during lockdown
Material-driven project pushes the boundaries of what is possible with American hardwoods and explores how designers and craftspeople adapted their working practices during lockdown. A special feature by Modern Woodwork on these masterpieces.
Nine imaginative and original tables and seating designs, created by nine leading international designers and beautifully made in one of Europe’s top craft workshops, were kept on display as part an installation entitled ‘Connected’, at the Design Museum in London last year (2020).
The designers involved include: Ini Archibong (Switzerland), Maria Bruun (Denmark), Jaime Hayon (Spain), Heatherwick Studio (UK), Sebastian Herkner (Germany), Maria Jeglinska- Adamczewska (Poland), Sabine Marcelis (Netherlands), Studiopepe (Italy) and Studio Swine (UK / Japan).
The onset of COVID-19 significantly changed the way people live, interact and work. As a result, creatives, and makers had to adjust their processes using new technologies to work together at a distance and often operate from new, improvised, home offices. For this project, the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), Benchmark Furniture and the Design Museum challenged the designers to create a table and seating for their personal use, to suit their new ways of living and working from home. The designers had a choice of three American hardwoods to work with – red oak, maple, or cherry. They were also invited to record their creative journeys to demonstrate how they approached the brief and developed their designs at a time of limited physical contact.
“This extraordinary exhibition showcases the results of a unique experiment that sets out to push the boundaries of what is possible with these timbers and to explore how designers and craftspeople adapted their working practices during lockdown,” said Roderick Wiles, AHEC Regional Director. “The project demanded that both the designers and craftspeople at Benchmark work innovatively, by relying solely on digital communication and video conferencing, to bring the designers’ visions to life. This approach required a new level of trust in the makers, since the designers had no physical contact with their pieces whilst they were being made at Benchmark’s Berkshire workshop during the summer.”
According to AHEC, this material-driven project is all about three underused hardwoods – red oak, maple and cherry – which combined, account for more than 40 percent of all standing hardwoods in the American forests. All three are beautiful woods and the aim was to allow the designers to discover their aesthetic and performance potential. The emphasis was also on the environmental merits of making more use of what nature is growing. The resulting responses to the brief are incredibly diverse and personal, with a bold array of natural and stained finishes that bring these sustainable timbers to life in a new way. Each of the designs have challenged the makers with their complexity and attention to detail.
“I am blown away by how each designer was given the same brief and we ended up with nine completely different – and incredible – creative interpretations. The performance of these three hardwoods has been exceptional, and craftspeople at Benchmark have risen to the challenges presented by some complex designs and the results are extraordinary,” said David Venables, AHEC’s European Director. “This is a genuine evolution in how we work: the craftspeople have worked tirelessly with the designers over video conferencing to ensure the exact details are met. And it proves that lockdown doesn’t get in the way of creativity and creation.”
“Commissioning nine designers to make furniture from wood doesn’t sound like a particularly original brief. But these are not ordinary times. We are all being over-exposed to our homes and having to adapt to new patterns of working. The pandemic has forced each designer to approach their home-working set-up with a completely fresh perspective – what do they really need? The Connected project has been a rare opportunity for them to design for themselves, but the key challenge has been that they have had to rely entirely on digital communication. It couldn’t be more relevant, and we are delighted with the results,” added Justin McGuirk, Chief Curator at the Design Museum.
Each designer was paired with a craftsman at Benchmark’s workshop in Berkshire, with whom they developed their pieces. Benchmark collated all the production data for each design to enable AHEC to model its environmental life cycle impact (LCA). The designers also recorded the design process and product development throughout the summer, producing a series of video diaries, which are on the project website (www.connectedbydesign.online) and social media, using the project hashtag (#connectedbydesign). These diaries also feed into a documentary-style film that will narrate their individual journeys.
This unique experiment explores how designers and craftspeople adapted their working practices during lockdown
– Roderick Wiles,
AHEC Regional Directorwww.connectedbydesign.online
