Cover Feature www.thedesignermagazine.com 21
Above left: The work of talented new company
1981, established by furniture-maker Tom
Bullimore and textile designer Claire Milton,
‘Mirror, Table, Bench’ is part of a small collection
of limited-edition pieces, using sustainable timber
and hand-printed fabric
Above right: ‘Entrapment’ takes its inspiration
from pitcher plants, a family of insectivorous
plants which have evolved ‘pitfall traps’ from
rolled leaves to attract insects. Made from PEFC-
certifi ed French oak, copper and steel, it is the
work of wood sculptor Henry Swanzy
Left: As a fan of using green wood in the home,
Charlie Whinney’s CurlyShade lighting range
uses slithers of steam-bent locally sourced ash
to dramatic effect
Below: Timber-framed buildings are all the rage
on the self-build market. Here, specialist timber-
frame company Emanuel Hendry has created
a wonderfully rustic new-build cottage using
European oak trusses
Leaving the eco rant to
one side for a second, the rapid
diminishment of supply is actually one of
the key factors shaping the use of wood
today, particularly within interiors. “Solid
wood has gone from an everyday, readily and
cheaply available material to an expensive previously ignored timber resources and goes
commodity,” says Gary Marinko, Design straight to the forester to procure the young
Director at the Advanced Timber Concepts ash that is thinned out in the forest, which
Research Centre at the University of Western otherwise would be a waste product. “Timber
Australia, which is exploring more effi cient dealers don’t like selling small trees because
ways of using forest resources. it’s harder to fi nd a market. As a rule they
Marinko recently showcased a range are looking for logs that are as big as
of furniture at 100% Design, which was possible and as long as possible, but in truth
born from the observation that furniture the majority of furniture is made from timber
manufacturers discard timber with a cross- that is no more than four inches thick,”
section of 20mm x 20mm or less. In an explains Roy, who spent 12 years running a
effort to carry out the design according to pioneering low-energy furniture company
sustainable practice, Marinko adopted this before becoming senior lecturer in 3D Design
size as the maximum for the construction at Plymouth University.
of his furniture, thus utilising perfectly In a similar vein, British furniture-
acceptable timber that would otherwise have makers/environmentalists Garry Olson
been fi rewood. and Peter Toaig’s One Tree project, which
Roy Tam, a Westcountry-based lecturer culminated in a book of the same name,
and designer-maker, is also exploring revealed just how much can be produced ➔
Wood.indd 21 20/11/08 16:49:24
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