The Connected furniture design initiative, organised mid-pandemic 2020 by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), attracted international media coverage. But AHEC felt the project could be taken further and its remit broadened to support and inspire young creatives in the use of US hardwoods worldwide. So Discovered, a collaboration with international design magazine Wallpaper, was born.
Connected, which featured in TTJ, put eight leading designers across Europe and one in Japan to a serious test. It challenged them to create tables and seating adapted to the living/work space that homes had become for so many during Covid-19 lockdown.
The reference to the pandemic could be taken further in the fact that it heightened awareness of the intimate connection between human health and well-being and environmental impacts of human activity. In Connected, designers were to use one or more of three lesser-used US hardwood species; cherry, red oak and maple. The emphasis was on minimising supply stress on market-leading varieties and making best use of what the forest provides – working in tune with the environment.
In another sign of the testing times, liaison between designer and producer, the UK’s Benchmark Furniture, had to be entirely remote, via phone, Zoom, Teams or FaceTime.
Connected culminated in an exhibition of the finished pieces at the London Design Museum, which had also helped support and liaise with the designers throughout the project. The stunning creations, said AHEC European director David Venables, reflected the “inventiveness, imagination and creativity of the designers in exceptionally demanding circumstances”. It also underlined “the versatility of the material and the timber knowledge, hi-tech processing and craft skills of Benchmark”.
It was in reflecting on the success of Connected that the seeds of Discovered were sown.
“Connected was inspirational and we started to think, as it addressed issues that are global, why not develop a truly global design project, co-ordinated through AHEC’s worldwide team,” said Mr Venables. “At the same time we thought we must engage emerging design talent. Connected highlighted the exceptional abilities and vision of established creatives. But it’s increasingly appreciated that the new generation of designers have found the pandemic toughest of all. They’ve been deprived of the platforms that give their work exposure just as they’re setting out on their creative journey. This is also the generation that will really be confronted by the social and consumption changes we have to make in the face of the climate crisis – and, in forcing us to make dramatic changes itself, the pandemic has focused minds on the fact that those required to mitigate climate change will be more radical still.”
These initial thoughts crystallised as Discovered following an article in international design magazine Wallpaper by editor-in-chief Sarah Douglas.
“It was a ‘love letter’ to young designers saying Wallpaper understood their challenges and wouldn’t forget them – it was inspiring,” said Mr Venables. “The magazine also supports up-and-coming creatives by annually listing the latest generation of design graduates internationally. This has been instrumental in launching the careers of some pretty serious designers and we felt ‘here’s a vehicle we could use’. We got in touch with Wallpaper and they were hugely enthusiastic about working together on a project. Following Connected, the Design Museum was excited by the concept too and added its backing – supporting young designers is also very much part of its role.”
Together Wallpaper and AHEC approached young design talent worldwide, eventually choosing a group of 20 from 16 countries, including those perhaps better known for making rather than designing furniture, such as Vietnam and Thailand.
“This gave Discovered a particular richness and excitement. It drew on very different cultures and perspectives. We were never going to get 20 works that looked the same,” said Mr Venables.
The designers’ brief was to create a piece of furniture or object drawing on what isolation in pandemic meant to them. It also asked them to focus on three key words, touch, reflection and strength, referencing feelings and absences in lockdown and the endurance it demanded.
“It was an excellent brief which also touched on the inherent properties of hardwood; its tactility, resilience and the way it catches and reflects light and can even appear translucent or multi-tonal,” said Mr Venables.
“The stress was also very much on the durability of the designer’s creation – that for the sake of the environment we can no longer be a throw-away society. We have to think in terms of holistic value and to design furniture and other products to last and even pass down, which logically points to using more hardwood.”
Like Connected, the focus was also on making the most sustainable use of the timber resource, with the species used once more being red oak, cherry and hard and soft maple, which together comprise 41% of the US hardwood forest.
“In the interests of the forest and our industry, we can’t keep returning to the same handful of species – and the stress these are already under was demonstrated in the over-heated timber trade post-pandemic,” said Mr Venables.
“We must bring the whole species spectrum to the attention of the market, particularly designers who shape consumer tastes and trends. When we do, our experience is that the response is universally positive.”
The Discovered designers were divided into regional groupings centred on a manufacturing hub, the producer they worked with to bring their designs to reality. These were Fowseng in Singapore, Evostyle in Australia, WeWood in Portugal and Benchmark in the UK.
Discovered also involved four leading designers as mentors; Tomoko Azumi, Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska, Adam Markowitz and Nathan Yong. And again, communication between all involved, young designers, mentors and producers, had to be remote due to pandemic travel constraints, plus the distances involved.
The designers were all sent samples of the timber to be used and AHEC ran online workshops on its performance. These also detailed the environmental performance of the US hardwood sector, while highlighting once more the importance of using the range of species offered by the American forest to ensure its long-term maintenance and role in supporting biodiversity and climate regulation.
The end results, says AHEC, exceeded all expectations in their sheer diversity, invention, and quality of design and making. Brought together in a physical and virtual exhibition at the Design Museum, they vividly showcased the talent of the young designers and the versatility of the timbers used.
“It was a feast of hardwood. You didn’t know which piece to go and look at or touch first,” said Mr Venables.
The creations ranged from Lahmu by Sizar Alexis, a cherry storage cabinet and benches, inspired by the solidity of bunker architecture he experienced in the Iran/Iraq war, to Thought Bubble by Nong Chotipatoomwan, an imaginative red-oak rocking chair “reflecting nostalgia for travel and social interaction”.
The stackable Roof Stool by Huyen Tran Thi Nguyen mixed maple, cherry and red oak and was designed for socialising, while looking beautiful stored away. Pascal Hien’s red oak Migo 01 combined chair/desk/table highlighted the need for multi-functional furniture in a home/work environment, while Mac Collins’ Concur red oak armchair and book rest drew on the potential for “contemplation and serenity in isolation”.
Pascal Hien’s and Mac Collins’s designs so impressed the Design Museum that it has added them to its permanent collection. Benchmark is also putting Mr Hien’s Migo 01 into production.
“Discovered really gave a tremendous representation of the potential of the next generation of designers and their use of wood,” said Mr Venables.
“The three timbers they used, which offer so much in terms of their capacity to reduce supply stress on the more commonly used species, were virtually unknown to all of them. But they could not have done a better job in showing how beautiful they can look, how tactile they can be and how well they can perform in any sort of process, from handcraft to CNC machining.”
