Harrow Lowlands
2014
Assemble designed and built a set of furniture for a new public park and cafe at Lowlands, Harrow. The chairs and tables were made from timber which had been felled by the Conservation Aborist Team, Epping Forest. The timber was selected for its distinctive and varied spalting, a pattern of rot in the wood caused by fungal infection.
The timber was processed at a sawmill, dried out for several weeks, cut into sections and then recombined at random to abstract the ‘oyster’ patterns in the timber. Plywood splints were used to stitch the furniture together, celebrating the joints and adding a decorative element to the seat, table and bench tops.
Bespoke metal frames made with legs of varying angles provide the structure for the timber tops, while the chairs were finished with one of three designs of seatback that were made from kiln-dried timber. The commission also included the production of a range of soft-play items. All wood and metalwork was completed at Assemble’s workshops, Sugarhouse Studios.