Furniture. Interior and exterior environments
Our work is always informed by this philosophy. We are
inspired by wood and will always promote the use of
sustainable native timbers, but whichever material we use
it has to be fit for its purpose and meet responsible
environmental criteria. Where it comes from, and how, is
as important as where it ends up! All the materials we
use naturally inform the design and construction
process, but the context of the making is equally important.
We work in a not for profit co-operative, recycle all our
waste and buy our electricity from a renewable energy
supplier which builds its own wind turbines
We only use timber which is FSC certified or from a source
where we can demonstrate chain of custody and ethical
production. Where we use materials other than timber,
we have to be satisfied that the ethical policies of their
manufacturers meet our criteria.
We are developing an ongoing project to re-introduce the
use of Sweet Chestnut in furniture making and exterior
products. It is a fast growing hardwood harvested from
coppiced woodland, traditionally on a 15 to 20 year cycle.
Coppicing is the management of certain species which can
be cut right back and will shoot new growth from the
remaining stump. This means that new growth is supported
by a mature root structure and relatively fast. Of course,
rapid growth means rapid absorption of C02.
Coppicing supports age old rural skills and livelihoods and
allows light into the woodland which secures the
environments of flora and fauna.
This beautiful timber was widely used in the past but, for
a variety of reasons recent years have seen its use decline.
There are efforts to re-introduce it in semi-manufactured
form for structural framework and cladding, and it is still used
in rustic crafts and fencing.
Because of this fall from grace and despite the fact that it
is widely grown in the UK and Europe, properly seasoned
lumber has been hard to come by. We have now secured
a reliable source with impeccable ethical credentials and
will be developing the range of furniture in the future.
In its green (unseasoned) form, Sweet Chestnut
is ideal for exterior use and we are actively promoting
this, notably as part of a recent project where we designed
and built a nature garden for a local primary school.
We constructed large planters from the timber and these
also served as supports for the fencing which was also
in green chestnut poles.
We were able to arrange for pupils to visit the woodland
which was the source of their timber, and this gave them
invaluable insight into the nature of trees and the habitats
they support, as well as contextualising the end product.
During the course of the project it became apparent that
many children in urban environments have no conception
of the countryside which surrounds them and have
difficulty appreciating that what they sit on, eat at, hit
balls with, play music on etc. has a connection with a
growing thing.
Hopefully, nature garden projects such as this will help
to remedy this gap in their education!
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Contact Details
Phone: 020 8766 7865
Adrian: 07767 665585
Hugo: 07967 647256
