On my radar: simplicity and sustainability at London Design Festival 2019 – part 2

It’s time for part two of my round-up of simple and sustainable designs from London Design Festival 2019 (you can see part 1 from yesterday here). This post has a particular focus on hand-crafted wooden furniture, with a series of honest, refined designs built to last. Timeless and elegant, these are pieces to cherish and enjoy everyday.

Brook Studio (designjunction)
With a focus on craftsmanship, material and long-lasting quality, Brook Studio designs and produces simple, modern furniture from a small studio near Southampton, UK. The company was founded in 2017 by Tim Evershed who trained as a cabinetmaker. His work draws from Shaker and Danish mid-century designs and is underpinned by the exploration of traditional craft techniques.

The three-legged Steady stool, available in a beautiful ebonised oak amongst other finishes, caught my eye. As did the Marlow bench, which takes inspiration from the utilitarian ‘staked’ furniture of the Middle Ages. The timeless Leo chair features soft curves that invite the sitter to relax into it.

Brook Studio’s designs are made of sustainable timber, sourced from local tree surgeons and sawmills on the south coast of England.

Images courtesy Brook Studio

Didier (designjunction)
Didier is a Melbourne-based furniture manufacturer founded by one of Australia’s most successful designers, Ross Didier, in 2002. Didier’s portfolio is eclectic and diverse, working closely with makers and craftspeople to inject an element of playfulness and experimentation into design projects.

Showing at London Design Festival 2019 for the first time, Didier presented the robust and refined Fable collection. Made of solid oak, the series comprises a range of stools, armchairs, lounge chairs, tables and mirrors. Inspired by children’s folklore stories, the designs stem from the whimsical idea that a woodsman has carved a collection of functional everyday pieces for his cottage.

The collection has expanded to include outdoor seating in hardwearing aluminium and stainless steel. Says Didier, ‘We are seeing more blurred lines and a more casual approach, especially in outdoor hospitality projects, and this range aims to offer a more sophisticated character to outdoor dining. We have paid particular attention to the weight, form and feel of these pieces so they have the serious intention of indoor furniture, but can be left out in the weather.’

Images courtesy Didier

Solidwool (designjunction)
Solidwool came from an idea to bring back wool manufacturing to the founder’s small hometown of Buckfastleigh in Devon. After learning that the coarse wool from hill-farmed, upland sheep had dramatically lost its value in recent years and was now considered a worthless by-product of sheep farming, they sought to find a new use for it. By combining the wool with an epoxy-based bio-resin they could create Solidwool, a sustainable composite material similar to fibreglass. The finish is perfectly smooth but you can still see the texture of the wool fibres.

Solidwool’s Hembury chair (£395) combines a shell moulded seat with a UK-sourced powder coated metal frame and British ash wood legs. It comes in natural dark grey or three colours dyed with tinted bio-resin.

Solidwool is also expanding the collection to include tables, placemats and coasters. The range can be purchased at https://www.solidwool.com/shop

Images courtesy Solidwool

Isokon Plus (designjunction)
I remember all those years ago as an architectural student going on a little pilgrimage to see the modernist Isokon building in Hampstead, a new vision of urban living designed by Wells Coates in the 1930s. Now you can get a slice of Isokon at home. Isokon Plus is a London-based furniture maker, dedicated to keeping entrepreneur Jack Pritchard’s pioneering vision to improve society through architecture and design alive since 1931.

From their workshop in London’s Walthamstow, shared with furniture manufacturer Very Good & Proper, Isokon Plus creates timeless, handmade designs in small batches. Working with architects and designers from prototype to manufacture, such as Barber Osgerby, they use fine solid timbers and handpicked veneers. It’s a slow process. Barber Osgerby’s stackable Ballot chair took months to refine, while their Shell chair from 2004 is being reissued and put back into production.

Photography by Rory Gardiner and Sam Bush, courtesy of Isokon Plus. Second image of Shell chair: Henry Newman

KONK! Furniture (London Design Fair)
Based in Bristol, KONK! Furniture is a design studio and workshop producing hand-crafted furniture made to order. It was founded by Alex, an architect graduate ‘who didn’t want to be an architect’ (just like me!). KONK!’s focus on sustainability means that their solid, hardwearing designs are made to last; they use FSC certified wood from sustainably managed forests and for every order they receive, they donate a portion of the sale to plant a tree with non-profit One Tree Planted.

Their designs, such as the Hänga cabinet, are exquisitely crafted. Made from solid oak and black American walnut, the design features an arched frame and textured drawer fronts that have been hand carved. I particularly like the Oku shelving; made of solid oak, it has beautiful dovetail joints that secure the shelves to the frame.

Images courtesy KONK! Furniture

Takt (London Design Fair)
I came across Danish brand Takt earlier in the year at 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen. Takt produce refined furniture with a focus on sustainability. As well as using wood from sustainable forests and water-based lacquer, their designs come with a five year warranty and can be separated out into different pieces, to be recycled or replaced at the end of their lifetime. Like KONK! Furniture, they also plant a tree for every chair sold with One Tree Planted.

Takt’s Cross chair (£195), designed by PearsonLloyd, is a simple, versatile design made of solid oak. It can be stacked and customised with upholstery. The space-efficient flat pack nature of the design means Takt can pack 5 to 7 times more products in the same volume and reduce CO2 emissions during transportation. I particularly like the details on the Soft chair (£219). Designed by Thomas Bentzen, it features a moulded veneer seat and back rest that curve around the solid ash frame.

Images courtesy Takt