“Creativity,” said Steve Jobs, “is connecting things.”
Creative people, maintained Apple’s founder, are able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesise something new.
“And the reason they’re able to do that is because they’ve had more experiences, or have thought more about their experiences than other people,” he said. “The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”
The latest design project from the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) will tap into that ability to innovate through connecting experiences of creative people across Europe and one in Japan. More than that it will also connect those people themselves, some of the continent’s leading product designers, tasking them not only to come up with furniture pieces in US hardwood that are distinctly their own, innovative and unique, but that will ultimately all link together in one creative whole. The objective is to highlight the importance of design in developing the international timber sector and, even more at this testing time, the interdependence of timber suppliers, specifiers and users and the imperative of working together. Above all, it is also to underline our need to make the absolute most of the ultimate in sustainable raw materials in the face of mounting global environmental challenges.
AHEC has, of course, worked with leading creatives before – architects, designers and makers – to both promote and explore the manufacturing and construction capabilities of different American hardwood species.
These have resulted in innovative showcase products and structures that have featured at international events from the London and Madrid Design Festivals, to the Venice Biennale, garnering multi-media headlines worldwide in the process.
Plans for more such design platforms this year were put on hold by the Covid-19 pandemic. Designers are in lockdown.
Design festivals and trade shows cancelled or postponed wholesale. In its mission to inspire and inform the market in the use of US hardwood, AHEC has had to get even more creative.
“We were faced with designers being to a greater or lesser degree in isolation, having to work alone, possibly with projects put on hold,” said AHEC European director David Venables. “So what we came up with is Connected; a project that would tap into designers’ individual creativity, but also bring them together to work towards a common goal. We’ve approached nine designers in nine different countries, including the UK, and given them a brief to design a seat and co-ordinating table. Where the added connection comes in is that all the tables have to be able to be linked and work together in various configurations as a single installation.”
AHEC developed the initial concept with project partner Benchmark Furniture and in collaboration, for the first time, with the London Design Museum.
“The museum has helped us select the designers to take part and, with Benchmark will act as a co-ordinating hub for Connected, liaising with and linking them together – and we’re asking the designers to keep video diaries to document the whole process,” said Mr Venables. “The Museum will also stage the final installation that connects all the pieces, and host a series of design events.”
Renowned UK furniture designer/maker Benchmark has worked with AHEC on a number of previous projects, including Wish List and Legacy. These teamed designers, makers and cultural influencers to develop furniture and a range of other products in American hardwood, with Legacy focused exclusively on red oak, the most abundant US hardwood species.
“Among the contrasts between those earlier projects and Connected is that we are asking designers this time to create home living products purely for themselves; furniture that they would like to have around the house and live with,” said Mr Venables. “We feel this will result in a different creative emphasis.”
The other key aspect of Connected is that the designers will all be working with a palette of three US hardwood species, cherry, maple (both hard and soft) and red oak. They can choose to use just one, or a combination.
All three species were extensively used in Europe not long ago, but in recent years have been relatively sidelined as American white oak and European oak have come to dominate the interiors market, from flooring to furniture.
“All three are beautiful woods and we want more designers to discover their aesthetic and performance potential,” said Mr Venables.
“But our emphasis is also on the environmental merits of using the range of available species. Over reliance on a narrow selection must ultimately result in supply stress. The realisation is growing that, to make most sustainable use of the forest, we have to expand our portfolio and use the species nature produces and, combined, cherry, the maples and red oak account for more than 40% of standing US hardwoods.”
The designers are all being sent samples of the three species, in an array of finishes, plus details of their technical characteristics. In addition, they will be pointed to the range of tools and data built up by AHEC to demonstrate the environmental credentials of the vast American hardwood resource. These include its just relaunched and enhanced online interactive map. This draws on hugely detailed information provided by the US Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis programme (FIA) and gives a picture of hardwood forest growth and timber offtake, drilling down to county level.
Also on the AHEC website is its life cycle analysis (LCA) tool, which gives users the carbon and other environmental impacts of shipping a specified volume of the key commercial US hardwoods to any destination worldwide. This includes a calculator showing the rate of renewal of each species – and for your information, a cubic metre each of cherry, hard and soft maple and red oak grows in 2.69, 1.7, 0.87 and 0.57 seconds respectively!
“Benchmark will also help us to undertake LCA of each piece of furniture through the making process, recording all materials and energy inputs to create individual environmental profiles,” said Mr Venables.
“Benchmark is the perfect partner for this task as it’s been focused on sustainability for 35 years, more recently turning its attention to the impact its furniture has on human health and well-being, as well as the planet. Using only natural products, it ensures all materials used are both sustainable and healthy; from the fillings of its upholstered pieces to the low VOC natural oiled timber finishes used.
“Meeting the standards for WELL buildings, Benchmark is leading the industry in providing full transparency, with Declare Ingredients Labelling and Environmental Product Declarations, making it easier for architects and designers to specify the right materials.”
If designers want to go into even more detail on the material’s environmental credentials, they can be directed to the latest edition of the report commissioned by AHEC from consultants Seneca Creek Associates; ‘Assessment of Lawful Harvesting & Sustainability of US Hardwood Exports’. This states that current evidence shows very low or ‘negligible’ risk of US hardwood exports containing timber from illegal, or unsustainable sources. It also says that latest methods used in the FIA programme “provide clear proof that growth exceeds harvesting in the hardwood forest and that overall forest area is stable”.
Additionally, AHEC has just produced a short, sharp briefing document for the international hardwood sector, ‘Demonstrating the sustainability of US hardwood products’.
This summarises latest tools, data and analysis underpinning the environmental case for the material.
“What Covid-19 has done has brought home how a crisis can so rapidly turn our world upside down,” said Mr Venables. “And there’s a growing feeling that, as we come out of the pandemic, there will be a deeper realisation that the climate crisis we are all facing potentially threatens even greater disruption, unless we can work together to find solutions, collectively changing the way we behave, work and consume. Our aim, including through Connected, is to highlight that greater use of sustainable American hardwoods, with all their carbon and wider environmental benefits, is one of those solutions.”
The schedule for the Connected team is tight. The eight designers will have two months to design and develop their pieces, and two months working with Benchmark to make their designs a reality, so all the finished furniture can be delivered in September.
“This is going to be a challenge. Seating design is complex, having to take into account aesthetic, structural, ergonomic and functional considerations – and we really want the designers to push the timber’s performance possibilities. At the same time, the tables will not only have to co-ordinate with the chairs, but be designed so that they can come together as one piece,” said Mr Venables. “But, as the current health crisis has also shown in other fields, pressure combined with connectedness can drive creativity and invention.”
