Design

Wood winners

Above: The chair is created in a single press Below: Jasper Morrison

The Wood Awards recognised two very different designs

The Iso-Lounge chair by Jasper Morrison for Isokon Plus won the Wood Awards Production category, while Wycliffe Stutchbury’s Gayles Farm 5 won the Bespoke award.

The judges praised the Iso-Lounge chair’s accomplished making and extreme comfort. Morrison looked to Isokon’s archives and was particularly inspired by its original logo, Gerald Summers’ Bent Plywood chair with its single flowing surface, and Rietveldt’s Zig-Zag chair. Iso-Lounge’s cutting-edge design started life as a single sketch, where the hand flowed from the back of the seat to the floor. Plywood was the only choice of material to follow the curve of the cantilevered design. The cantilever relies on highly technical production to create balance and support. More than four complete prototypes, alongside many prototype sections, were made over the course of a year, to create a piece that offers total support and maximum comfort.

Where strength is needed, there are more layers, and where it needs 

Jasper Morrison

The room divider is made from thousands of oak tiles

The tiles were cut from discarded oak fencing to flex, there are fewer. The chair has been honed to be incredibly responsive. The orientation of the veneer layers and their thickness was tested over many months to push plywood to its limits. A very simple basis of an idea has been executed as purely as possible. The chair is constructed from a single pressing consisting of 16 layers of veneer. Integral to the chair is the delicately curved back and tapering seat, created by machining the individual layers to a feather edge.

MOR Design, Ercol, Matteo Fogale, Benchmark Furniture and TAKT were finalists.

Wycliffe Stutchbury’s Gayles Farm 5 won the Bespoke award. The judges were impressed by the piece’s sculptural presence and how it celebrates movement. It highlights the preciousness of the European oak used and draws the viewer in to examine its form and the quality of the individual pieces.

The room divider was created to further Stutchbury’s exploration of textile techniques and characteristics using wood. The piece has a flowing appearance, made up of thousands of small oak tiles glued to an open-weave cotton twill. The wooden curtain is hung on a hinged, three-panelled oak frame with hemp rope and cleats and can be height-adjusted. The form is dictated by how the tile construction hangs over the supporting uprights, like a sail held by a mast.

The tiles were cut from discarded oak fencing retrieved from the South Downs. The variety of colours and textures is explained by the different ways the timber reacted to weathering. The piece displays the many wonderful ways that timber responds to its environment.

Benchmark Furniture, Jan Hendzel Studio, and Gareth Neal and Jan Hendzel were finalists. Visit: www.woodawards.com www.isokonplus.com www.wycliffestutchbury.co.uk