British designer Max Lamb was inspired by a tree in his grandfather’s garden in Yorkshire for his latest project – titled My Grandfather’s Tree, appropriately – which is showing at London Design Festival this week in collaboration with Gallery Fumi.
The tree in question was a female ash tree, ‘born’ in 1822 and so tall, the designer explains, that from its top you could see York Minster, a full 25 miles away from his grandfather’s house. In 2009, the tree started to rot and it became necessary to take it down, inspiring Lamb to give it a new life and shape with a poetically-conceived furniture project.
‘The typical afterlife of a felled tree is very sad,’ the designer says, explaining that an old tree’s fate is usually as firewood. ‘A quick and sad ending for these incredible structures of nature, and a waste of such a wonderful material containing so much potential.’
To offer a design-led afterlife to the tree, Lamb collaborated with tree surgeon Jon Turnbull, who helped section it in a way respectful of its structure, branches, knots and crotches. ‘I wanted the tree to remain integral to the wood and to maintain the story told by its 187 annual growth rings,’ Lamb explains. The rings gave the tree’s history a well-documented identity, illustrating not only its growth but also the humidity and temperature of each of its epochs, the direction in which it grew and the climatic condition of each growing year.
The result of the collaboration is a collection of 131 pieces, including stools, small tables and chairs. ‘Learning by collaborating is the essence of what I do and the language I speak,’ says Lamb, whose work is often inspired by the craftsmen, engineers and makers he learns from – in this case, Turnbull, who was instrumental in helping him understand the material at hand.
Lamb’s participation in the Festival includes another project working with wood. His collaboration with Benchmark also looks at the life of a tree, sectioning it in a different direction to create long tables using a single plank from a tree’s trunk. Both projects highlight the designer’s talent for working in wood, establishing a testimony to his keen craftsman’s sensibility.
In 2009 the tree started to rot and it became necessary to take it down, inspiring Lamb to give it a new life and shape with a furniture project
The result of the collaboration between Lamb and tree surgeon Jon Turnbull is this collection of 131 pieces, which includes stools, small tables and chairs
The pieces are on show in a poetic display at Somerset House, as part of the venue’s London Design Festival offering
‘Learning by collaborating is the essence of what I do and the language I speak,’ explains Lamb, whose work is often inspired by the craftsmen, engineers and makers he learns from
Each piece comes with a tag referring to its original position on the tree’s trunk
Turnball’s sensitive sectioning of the tree was integral to Lamb’s vision; ‘I wanted the tree to remain integral to the wood and to maintain the story told by its 187 annual growth rings,’ the designer explains
Each of the logs was polished to give it an essential functionality, and otherwise left in its raw state
INFORMATION
My Grandfather’s Tree is on show at Somerset House until 27 September
ADDRESS
The Embankment Galleries
Somerset House
Strand
London, WC2R 1LA
-
The future of Copenhagen Fashion Week? Look towards the students of SAFDTaught by designer Anne Sofie Madsen, the tightly knit students of the Scandinavian Academy of Fashion Design (SAFD) are adding a new jolt of energy to the city’s manicured fashion scene. Dal Chodha heads to Copenhagen to meet its rising stars
-
Meet Goodesign, the modular furniture studio with big dreamsWallpaper* speaks to Emmanuel Popoteur, the self-taught designer behind New York’s Goodesign, a studio creating intuitive, adaptable furniture for modern living
-
Could reimagining play reshape childhood? 21st Europe argues for playgrounds as infrastructureA new blueprint by think tank 21st Europe and Spacon calls for playgrounds to be treated as vital civic infrastructure – on par with museums, stations and energy grids
-
Lee Broom’s brutalist-inspired ‘Beacon’ will light up London as Big Ben strikes the hourSet to pulse through London Design Festival 2025 (13-22 September) and beyond, the British industrial designer’s sculptural light installation on the South Bank draws on its surroundings
-
Yuri Suzuki turns sound into architecture at Camden Arts ProjectsThe sound designer unveils ‘Utooto’, an interactive installation at London’s Camden Arts Projects (until 5 October 2025), in which visitors collaboratively build a sonic piece of architecture
-
Alex Tieghi-Walker unveils his plans for Brompton Design District 2025Ahead of London Design Festival 2025, we catch up with New York gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker about his appointment as curator of the Brompton Design District programme
-
‘The point was giving ordinary people access to bold taste’: how Ikea brought pattern into the home‘Ikea: Magical Patterns’ at Dovecot Gallery in Edinburgh tells the story of a brand that gave us not only furniture, but a new way of seeing our homes – as canvases for self-expression
-
Design beyond humans: a new exhibition argues that the world doesn’t revolve around us‘More Than Human’ at London's Design Museum (until 5 October 2025) asks what happens when design focuses on the perspectives and needs of other species, from bees to seaweed
-
‘100 Years, 60 Designers, 1 Future’: 1882 Ltd plate auction supports ceramic craftThe ceramics brand’s founder Emily Johnson asked 60 artists, designers, musicians and architects – from John Pawson to Robbie Williams – to design plates, which will be auctioned to fund the next generation of craftspeople
-
‘Disabled people have always been here’: a new V&A show centres on disability in designCurator Natalie Kane takes us through five key exhibits from the London show, where design points the way to a more inclusive society
-
Malta’s London Design Biennale installation ‘reclaims death as a moment of reflection, not fear’Wallpaper* speaks with Andrew Borg Wirth, curator of Malta's installation, ‘URNA’, which reimagines cremation rituals
