40 | Sector Focus: North America


SUMMARY


■The Copenhagen edition of the Material Matters fair is from June 18-20


■Natural tree mortality in the US forest now exceeds harvest


■AHEC challenged three designers to develop furniture using No.1 C timber


■Benchmark explored the benefits of No.1 C in terms of labour efficiency and yield


LOWER GRADES’ HIGHER VALUE


EMBRACING


The 2025 Material Matters Copenhagen fair will show the design excellence that can be achieved with supposed lower qualities of US hardwood. Mike Jeffree reports


The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has long been on a mission to grow demand for a wider range of US hardwood species. The rationale is that this gives the market greater choice and timber suited to a wider spread of potential applications. Critically it’s also about making more sustainable use of the forest; working in tune with nature and using the species it provides based on their abundance. Hence the particular attention given by AHEC in recent years to red oak. It comprises 18% of the US hardwood forest. Now, importantly, AHEC is developing a related narrative. The message of its new No.1 Common project, being targeted at specifiers, designers and the wider timber trade, is that sustainability is also about making the most of the whole tree. It’s that we shouldn’t just favour what are perceived as the aesthetically superior higher qualities but also make maximum use of the lower tier – and lower price – US hardwood grades, notably No.1 Common (No.1 C).


Above: Appreciating the beauty of No.1 Common ALL PHOTOS: DAN MEDHURST TTJ | May/June 2025 | www.ttjonline.com


The call to utlilise the diversity of the US hardwood resource in the fullest sense is also ultimately about increasing hardwood use. It comes against the backdrop that the US hardwood forest has more than twice the volume of timber it had 50 years ago, and that consumption has not kept pace. Consequently, natural tree mortality in the


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