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
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