Reproduced with kind permission of the American Hardwood Export Council
In the spirit of celebrating and promoting local design talent, Timber IQ Online will be sharing a series of posts on Future Heirlooms, a recent project based around exploring sustainable timber design using specially sourced carbon negative American hardwood. In Part 1 we will explore the background of the project and cover the first two furniture pieces produced by the South African designers.
Always Welcome and the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) announced Future Heirlooms, a project to explore the future of sustainable South African design, in July 2022. Fast forward three months, and the group of seven South African designers from 3 provinces across the country have created a series of works that not only look forward to the future of sustainable design, but also explores their own heritage and the story of South Africa’s rich design legacy.
Created in American red oak by celebrated hardwood furniture designer-manufacturers Houtlander and timber importers BOS Timbers, the seven pieces — by Dokter and Misses, MashT Design Studio, TheUrbanative, Kumsuka, Kalki Ceramics, Joe Paine in partnership with Nathan Gates, and Nøde Studio — are a celebration of material and memory, and ask pertinent questions about our approach to the environment, says Roderick Wiles, AHEC regional director.
“We need to end our current throwaway culture and we need to use materials that have a low environmental impact. These issues should affect all our day-to-day decision-making. Designers, especially, have a huge influence on how products are planned and with what materials. This project was the perfect platform for us to work with accomplished South African designers and makers, whilst also helping them to work with an abundant, versatile and beautiful, yet lesser-known American hardwood species.”
For the designers of the show the project has offered a unique opportunity to explore alternative manufacturing methods, and the beauty and versatility of American red oak itself. “The material intrigued me from the outset of Future Heirlooms. I became fascinated by the seemingly endless possibilities of American red oak itself that, coupled with Houtlander’s special ability to work with timber, set my imagination alight and I just had to see what could be made,” says Thabisa Mjo, founder of award-winning Johannesburg based product and furniture design group MashT Design Studio of her participation in the project.
The seven pieces will be exhibited at the Always Welcome Viewing Rooms in Sandton, Johannesburg, until November 2022, and will then move to the new Always Welcome Heritage House in Cape Town in January 2023.
“We’re extremely proud of the work that’s been produced for Future Heirlooms. It’s taken an extraordinary journey to realise the ambitious pieces, many of which would’ve been impossible without the manufacturing expertise and careful eye of our partners Houtlander, and of course the generous support of AHEC and Bos Timbers. It’s our hope as Always Welcome that this project inspires important discussions around sustainability in South African furniture design, and that the personal narratives of each designer imbued in each piece brings joy and delight to visitors of the show during its run,” says Garreth van Niekerk, director and co-founder of the Always Welcome collective.
“Now Now” – Digital grandfather clock and repository for family information and memorabilia
By Joe Paine & Nathan Gates
American red oak; ultra-matte water-based sealer; custom digital timepiece
Two defunct grandfather clocks handed down over generations loomed over the lives of designer Joe Paine and artist Nathan Gates, who have come together to reimagine the grandfather clock as a design and conceptual marker. Their “Now Now” clock for the Future Heirlooms project looks toward the Memphis movement for design inspiration, and asks what role a grandfather clock would play in contemporary living.
“I have a grandfather clock that has been in my family for over 300 years that always had faint voices of the past attached to it,” says Joe. “But we wanted to make a product that would update the typical grandfather clock into the 21st century that could be a safe repository for media such as family information, photos and videos. Our clock will literally have the past speak to you to remind you that death awaits, and to stop wasting time.”
The resulting piece is an audio-visual reminder that is not so much designed to tell the time, but to remind you of its imminent passing and ceaseless cycle. Names echo from the chimes, and the sounds of jackals calling, as the interface references the amount of time left in the day, ticking on and on.
“The grandfather clock in my family was always displayed but never set up,” Nathan says, “So instead of telling the time, it just served as an elaborate reminder that time was there, passing by. Heirlooms are these functional products that represent the many people who got us here. They are the parts that are left once we die to connect us to the future generation. They can speak to us through stories that are associated with the object, and so we wanted to explore that in the creation of our clock.”
Family Portrait
By Dokter and Misses: Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin
American red oak, oil paint
First-time parents Katy Taplin and Adriaan Hugo, co-founders of Dokter and Misses, celebrate the next phase of their lives with a design that brings a family portrait into their line of product and furniture design — a literal interpretation of the Future Heirloom brief that, “…embodies the playfulness and chaos of family life,” Taplin says, adding, “we wanted it to be sculptural and to have fun with it.”
Their cabinet design has been broken into three parts, one for each member of their new family, complete with hidden cabinetry to store treasured items and hand-painted elements that continue their studio’s exploration of pattern and geometry. “For us an heirloom means family, warmth, belonging, expression, connection and value beyond what you see. We aim to design with the intention that our pieces will become heirlooms and that they will carry stories as they are passed down and treasured. We also think American red oak is underrated and we’re excited to work with it in future.”
Keep an eye out for Part 2, where we will continue to explore and celebrate these inspiring locally designed timber pieces.
