Morso by Alessandro Gazzardi in American cherry
Curated and designed by Studio Swine, Forest Tales brings together 22 specially selected designs from the American Hardwood Export Council’s (AHEC) recent projects, in a truly spectacular showcase of both global design talent and the beauty and versatility of American hardwood as a design material. Source: Timberbiz
“Forest Tales brings together a celebration of exceptional design from AHEC’s latest projects, a love for timber and a much-needed call for balance. Balance in the way we use natural materials with particular emphasis on renewable ones, such as wood,” said David Venables, director of the AHEC Europe Showing at Triennale Milano on from 3 to 12 June.
“The same balance on which today’s designers, as well as the entire sector, are called upon to reflect in order to address the greatest social and economic issue of our time: climate change; and the need to put an end to the current throwaway culture.
“Covid has shown that the world can react very quickly to a major global crisis, hopefully this experience will enable us to quickly make the necessary changes in the way we consume, build and live.”
Forest Tales is the culmination of AHEC’s creative work over the past two years. Studio Swine have curated pieces from four projects, which despite the diversity of their output, are united through material – each piece is made from one (or more) of three underused American hardwood varieties: maple, cherry and red oak.’
Featuring 22 designers from 14 countries, the exhibition line-up is a veritable who’s who of contemporary design. Featured designs include work by both established and emerging designers, ranging from Heatherwick Studio’s biophilic Stem table in maple and Studio Swine’s own steam-bent red oak tribute to Ming Dynasty design, to Taiho Shin’s inventive, expanding, glueless shelving systems, Maria Bruun’s quintessentially Nordic stackable stools, and Simon Gehring’s three wood chair that fuses computational design processes and leftover timber scraps to unique effect.
