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Hayon’s Connected creation. Benchmark has subsequently put it into production. Connected, said Mr Venables, defined AHEC’s year. “It felt essential to do something that took note of the unique situation, but was also relevant to our work, creatively inspiring and forward looking,” he said. “And, of course, it’s brilliant to have iconic designers like Jaime Hayon and Thomas Heatherwick talking about US hardwood.” The project also acted as inspiration and a stepping off point for its next collaborative venture with the global designer community, this time in partnership with design magazine Wallpaper.
Launched in October, Discovered involves 20 recently qualified designers in 16 countries. It challenged them to represent how pandemic isolation influenced their creativity in the form of furniture and other household objects and to “rethink the idea of domestic and public space for the future”. “Talking to Wallpaper editor-in-chief Sarah Douglas about Connected, we got to discussing the situation of emerging designers, how they were particularly hard hit by the pandemic, needing exposure, but denied the platform of exhibitions and other events,” said AHEC senior marketing manager Rocío Pérez-Íñigo. “So Discovered was born.” Once the designers were chosen by
Wallpaper and AHEC, the latter ran materials workshops for them online with the project’s four regional making hubs; Benchmark in the UK, WeWood in Portugal, Fowseng in Malaysia and Evostyle in Australia. They were sent samples, plus the new AHEC species guide, which incorporates application case studies and, for the first time, also its grading guide.
“The species are once more red oak, maple and cherry and, besides their technical performance, the stress is again on the sustainable supply narrative,” said Ms Pérez- Íñigo. “And interestingly, we found these up and coming designers had no preconceptions about the material or saw limits to its use. It was all new and exciting.”
The participants are being guided by four designer mentors and their work will feature in an exhibition at the London Design Museum in September. “We’re also running a digital
communication campaign at least as wide reaching as Connected’s,” said Ms Pérez-Íñigo. From rising talent, to one of the foremost names in design, AHEC is also telling the US hardwood story through the furniture concepts of Spanish architect Enric Miralles. The designer of the Scottish parliament, who died in 2000, Miralles also made furniture himself, sometimes using it to trial ideas for buildings, although it never went into production. Now, his wife and fellow architect Benedetta Tagliabue is working with AHEC, who she has partnered on previous projects,
to have a selection of his tables, seats and bookcases made in maple, red oak, cherry and tulipwood.
“Benedetta is overseeing the project and selected the pieces, comprising one-offs made by Miralles and one design that was a sketch,” said Ms Pérez-Íñigo. “He was very interested in the material narrative and loved oak and she says that, given red oak’s abundance and current relatively low use in Europe, it’s one species particularly he would have selected.” The furniture will feature in a Miralles memorial event at the Barcelona Design hub from May to August and it’s hoped later at Milan Design Week.
“It’s a snapshot of a moment in time and we’re privileged to be collaborating on it,” said Mr Venables. “It will also draw considerable attention to the importance of using these timbers.”
A further development in its unique year for communicating about US hardwoods, timber and the forest generally are AHEC’s first podcasts. Produced with design journal Disegno, the Words on Wood series at www.
americanhardwood.org is described as a “deep dive into some of the big issues surrounding forests and our relationship to them”. There are four initial episodes comprising in-depth interviews with a range of experts; Welcome to the Forest , The Carbon Sink, Illegal logging and Wood and Wellbeing. “It’s not overtly about stamping the AHEC brand, but getting the forest products voice heard,” said Mr Venables. “It’s accessible reflection on the challenges and opportunities of working with forests, how they grow, their resources and why it’s important to harvest as well as protect them.” Podcasts, he added, will be now be another regular AHEC communication fixture. ■
www.ttjonline.com | May/June 2021 | TTJ
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