The Class of 24 design showcase has truly put US hard maple in the spotlight.
The project was organised by design journal Wallpaper. It selected emerging design talent worldwide and presented a curated collection of their existing furniture, made in multifarious materials, to feature at the Class of 24 exhibition at the Milan Triennale during the city’s Design Week in April.
The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), also contributed to the event. To further “enrich the showcase with fresh perspectives”, it commissioned two designers, London-based Eleanor Hill of architectural studio Parti, and architect, teacher and researcher Giles Tettey Nartey, to create completely new pieces for it in American hard maple.
Subsequently the timber was pushed to the technical limit at Jan Hendzel Studio’s Woolwich workshop. For Ms Hill and Mr Tettey Nartey’s various pieces the 54mm boards were laminated into blocks, then worked by hand and machine, including a CNC machining centre. Various oils and stains were also trialled on the maple until the desired aesthetic was achieved.
Adding to the challenge, the design and making team had just three months to go from initial design to finished article. But they were clearly equal to the task. The finished products are both visually stunning and fulfil another objective of the designers and Jan Hendzel, prompting the question in the viewer “how did they do that?”.
In Ms Hill’s suite of seats and tables, the timber has been worked to flow and undulate, to emulate fabric wafting in the breeze. Mr Tettey Nartey’s food preparation and dining table and chairs, finished in bold black, impress with their sheer heft and scale, with all the furniture combined stretching 5m across at its widest point. Completing the collection are massive mortars and pestles in the same material.
Using hard maple helped both inform and inspire the design of the furniture, but it also put the designers and Jan Hendzel’s team further on a steep learning curve, as none had previously used it.
Ms Hill got the call to join Class of 24 after Parti was featured in Wallpaper as a practice to watch for its architectural and product design work.
“AHEC told us we’d be using hard maple and about its provenance and environmental credentials,” she said. “They also said no boundaries, be as creative as you can. It sounded like a fantastic opportunity. It was a very tight schedule, but despite the fact I was 37 weeks pregnant by the time we finished, we managed to squeeze it in, and it’s been a great experience.”
At the outset Ms Hill had a blank sheet of paper.
“We didn’t know what we wanted to make, but became interested in how we could manipulate the timber to draw out characteristics not usually associated with wood,” she said. “We wanted to create lightness and movement and looked at historic carvings where wood was given the look of draped and floating fabric. Working with Jan, we were also interested in learning about and developing the making process, feeding that knowledge back into the design so that this would not be a one-off sculptural creation, but something repeatable.”
Parti named its collection of four pieces Pirouette, with the impression of movement at the heart of the design.
“We wanted to capture the look of draped fabric that twists and billows, almost like a spinning skirt,” said Ms Hill. “Adding to inspiration for this was the smoothness of the timber and its fine, delicate grain that gives the impression of watered silk.”
Parti uses timber structurally in its architectural work, but in product design principally metal.
“I was slightly naïve about timber’s natural properties,” said Ms Hill. “We’d previously used CNC’ing in product manufacture but with metal and I imagined we’d similarly machine the maple and just slot sections together like a jigsaw puzzle! But I underestimated the timber’s movement and the fact that when we cut components for each piece from a laminated block the structural integrity changes. The parts were bonded together in a process like barrel making. We used 3D modelling and selected each lamination strip for the direction of grain, working out what the effect would be depending on how the wood was cut. Initially we considered adding an inlay, but given the effect achieved with the grain and patination of the glue lines, decided to go without. It was the right decision. I’m biased, but I think the pieces look beautiful, and any perceived constraints have been turned into opportunities. As we made each piece, we also refined the making process with Jan.”
For his food preparation and dining suite, “Communion”, Mr Tettey Nartey drew on his Ghanaian heritage, and the tradition of preparing and eating a meal as a communal, social experience. The huge table, comprising a series of workstations, with the laminated maple CNC-machined to create bowls and textured surfaces to prepare and mix ingredients.
Mr Tettey Nartey immediately said yes when invited to join Class of 24.
“I already had a concept that I thought I could develop,” he said. “In research for a PhD, I’ve been looking at West African craft, rituals and the culture around food and thinking how the domestic can be reimagined. I felt these collective acts could be turned from the everyday into a spectacle. Around food preparation and dining conversations take place and stories are told. So, what may seem boring, quotidian things are actually beautiful. I wanted to frame them in a beautiful way.”
It’s not just the dimensions of the furniture and forms of each piece that are striking, and the black stain which gives the timber the look of slate, it’s also the way the pieces work together. That includes the weighty mortars and pestles, with the former also made in a similar way to barrels. The originals these are modelled on are used across West Africa to pound plantain and casava to create a doughlike mash called fufu.
Hard maple’s strength and resilience made it the perfect material for Communion.
“This is furniture that’s really put to use, particularly the mortar or woduro,” he said. “So having a dense timber is super important.”
As with Pirouette, the initial concept for Communion also morphed through discussion on the making process with Jan Hendzel.
“The material consideration was very much to the fore,” said Mr Tettey Nartey. “Staying true to the concept, while making sure we could make it in maple. It was an exciting process learning practices for using the lathe and other machines, how the components could fit together, how to manipulate the wood and to some degree pre-empt its movement and incorporate it into the design.”
Once made, Communion was “activated” by 10 people, who used it to prepare food in a “delicate choreography ritualising the daily act of food preparation in West Africa, as a catalyst for social interaction and storytelling”. The process was captured on film, and a preview is now available on social media.
“This transformed it from being a captivating object into something that holds purpose and cultural significance,” said Mr Tettey Nartey.
Jan Hendzel said Class of 24 drew on all his studio’s experience of developing “complicated woodwork for interesting people”.
“From the moment we had the designs, we were breaking them down in terms of feasibility,” he said. “We had to work out process and production techniques to create these complex voluminous sculptural forms in laminated hardwood. But we did it and each time we did one piece, we learned and the process advanced.”
The Studio focuses on making bespoke pieces, plus its own furniture ranges, in UK timber. It had used a little maple before, but nothing on this scale.
“So that added to the learning process,” said Mr Hendzel. “It’s a beautiful timber, but quite demanding on tools because of its hardness – and it’s lively. When we CNC’d the laminated blocks, we got movement. We could lose that in Giles’ furniture thanks to its size, but Eleanor’s pieces were more challenging. They comprise a top and bottom half, of six laminated sections. It was all about pinpoint precision and so it doesn’t give away how it’s done. Angles of joints had to be spot on.”
But the results highlighted the timber’s versatility.
“The pieces look incredible and the way the timber is doing its thing is pretty special,” he said. “It’s taking up of colour is interesting too, with Pirouette pieces oiled and stained in pink, minty green, black with a hint of green and red.”
As a consequence of the project, Jan Hendzel Studio will add the maple to its materials portfolio.
“We’d definitely use it again,” said Mr Hendzel. “The grain is beautiful, with the crown cut timber revealing these wonderful flamey patterns. It’s also got great machining qualities. It holds an edge and is very clean, crisp, and sharp. The price is amazingly fair too!”
Ms Hill and Mr Tettey Nartey would also opt for hard maple in the future – “100%”, said the latter. Part of the reason is the wood’s aesthetic and technical characteristics. But the appeal, they say, is also the sustainability story of the US forest and making the most of its species diversity.
“Parti is focused on reducing our environmental impact,” said Ms Hill. “And AHEC’s message really resonated, that we can help do this by working in tune with the forest. Not just specifying the usual species but exploring the potential of others which can do the job equally well if not better.”
Mr Tettey Nartey agreed. “All my work, explicitly or implicitly, is about materials and their availability, or scarcity. It’s about the environment we depend on and how we live and work harmoniously with it.”
