London Design Festival 2015: British designer Max Lamb’s installation at Somerset Residence contains 131 logs sourced from an ailing ash tree at his grandfather’s farm .
Lamb’s venture, titled My Grandfather’s Tree, is located on the mezzanine in the Embankment Galleries at Somerset Property and supported by Shoreditch-based mostly Gallery Fumi – which showcased the designer’s metal-tube furnishings in Basel earlier this year.
Stood upright, the various shapes and sizes of logs are arranged in rows along the length of the gallery.
Each was taken from the same 187-12 months-outdated ash tree, which had grown at Lamb’s grandfather’s farm in Yorkshire, England, but had to be cut down in 2008.
“He advised me that it was critical that the tree came down as soon as achievable,” mentioned Lamb. “It was suffering badly from rot.”
Relevant story: Max Lamb’s Planks furnishings assortment for Benchmark characteristics hidden storage
His grandfather planned to use the tree for firewood, but Lamb requested that he preserved the wood.
“He said ‘if you reduce the tree down, you can deal with it’,” mentioned the designer, who displayed 42 of his seat styles created utilizing a broad range of materials and processes during Milan layout week in April.
With the aid of a pal, Lamb lower the tree into chunks before chopping it additional into 131 smaller logs.
The pieces have been drying for 7 years, but had been lastly sanded down and oiled to bring them to their present state for the installation.
“Wood, if handled properly, lasts for a really lengthy time,” stated Lamb. “But frequently it loses its origin. I desired to use this materials but consider and sustain as a lot of the identity of the tree as feasible.”
Each and every piece is numbered based on what component of the tree it came from. All are for sale, with prices ranging from £100 to £14,000 to reflect the volume of the materials.
Lamb advised that they could be utilised as stools, chairs, tables or simply decorative objects – but explained it was important to maintain the details presented by the tree’s rings and the connection of the logs to 1 yet another.
“They aren’t especially something, but they are very basically logs that have been extremely nicely conditioned and very properly completed,” he mentioned.
“The thought is to deliver a minor piece of this nature into the property, and leave as considerably to the voice of the materials as possible.”
Somerset Residence is a new venue for this year’s London Layout Festival, which will take area from 19 to 27 September 2015. Elsewhere in the developing, Patternity has filled a room with black-and-white graphics and 3D shapes to generate a “playground”. Lamb is also presenting a collection of wooden furniture with concealed storage in the course of the city-wide event.
My Grandfather’s Tree is one of Dezeen’s should-see installations for this year’s festival.
Photography is by Angus Mil courtesy of Gallery FUMI.
