Terence Woodgate and John Barnard create sculptural furniture from carbon fibre

Industrial designer Terence Woodgate has teamed up with John Barnard, an automotive engineer best known for his pioneering work with carbon fibre, to create a new furniture collection that bridges the divide between craft and technology.

Woodgate’s career has been characterised by a minimalist, ascetic approach, influenced in part by the pared-back work of artists and sculptors like Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin and Donald Judd. Parlaying these influences into products, lighting and his own sculptural objects, Woodgate’s client list includes Cappellini, Established & Sons, Moroso, SCP, Objekten, and Izé.

This new collaboration, Lightness of Form, sprang from another source of inspiration, the work of racing car designer John Barnard. Barnard began working in motorsport in the late 1960s and in 1972 he joined McLaren for the first time, leaving after three years to work in the American IndyCar race series. Back in the UK in 1980, he once again went to work for McLaren, by now led by the legendary Ron Dennis.

At McLaren, Barnard was one of the pioneers of working with carbon fibre composite. The resulting car, the MP4/1, was a game-changer for the sport, and today the ultra-light and strong material has applications right across the automotive spectrum.

Now it also has a place in furniture. Woodgate has teamed up with Barnard to create a collection of furniture using the material. On show at London’s Carpenters Workshop Gallery as part of London Design Festival 2025, the pieces include cabinets and seating elements as well as two sculptural tables, shown here, the ‘Wedge Desk’ and the ‘Aero Leg Table’.

The tables take full advantage of carbon fibre’s remarkable strength and rigidity. The ‘Aero Leg’ in particular features a long span, with an ultra-slim top and legs. The more monumental ‘Wedge Desk’ incorporates a couple of flush drawers into its precisely honed surfaces.

The collaborators describe all the pieces as transcending easy categorisation – they are ‘neither wholly functional nor strictly sculptural but suspended in the fertile space in between’. They’re also incredibly high-performance in terms of strength, as well as being durable, featuring forms that simultaneously manage to celebrate lightness and solidity.

‘Terence Woodgate and John Barnard: Lightness of Form’ is at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery from 17 September to 1 November 2025, Ladbroke Hall, 79 Barlby Road, London W10 6AZ

CarpentersWorkshopGallery.com, @CarpentersWorkshopGallery