‘Collaboration” is the sort of utopian word you don’t often hear from architects. Like an auteur, storyteller or artist, an architect is the creative driver of a project – keen to be seen as a lone wolf or creative genius. There is no “architect” in team.
Teamwork, of course, is a buzzword these days in the creative world, with open-plan office spaces, Ikea hacks and musical sister acts at the peak of their popularity. This summer Joshua Wolf Shenk published his book Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, crediting the success of even long-established “lone wolves” to the participation of overlooked sidekicks. Of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Wolf Shenk wrote: “Despite the tension – because of the tension – the work was magnificent.”
In this spirit, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum is showcasing the results of an unusual collaboration, between some of that city’s most distinguished architects and a band of newcomers in the design field. And the efforts are singular in their ingenuity. The project was spearheaded by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), which flouts its lacklustre image with ambitious creative ventures like the Endless Stair installation commissioned for last year’s London Design Festival. This year, AHEC asked Terence Conran, a Midas of London’s design and restaurant industries, to rally his most influential architect friends. Each would consider his most-wanted home item, then pluck a young designer from semi-obscurity to collaborate at Benchmark, Conran’s woodcraft studio in Berkshire. The man has pull: Zaha Hadid, John Pawson, Richard Rogers and others signed on. For all the interested parties, the exhibit is amazingly streamlined and coherent. The yin and yang of the young, entrepreneurial upstarts and the more senior artistes have netted a collection with the charisma of starchitecture, the functionality of shrewd design and the scent of sustainable wood.
We’ve spoken to the people behind five of the best.
Kitchen stool, by architect Alison Brooks and furniture designer Felix de Pass
“What I’ve always thought was missing in the world of furniture design was a really great stool. They tend to be overdesigned, commercial or call too much attention to themselves.
“I immediately knew which hardwood to pick: American cherry – it has a beautiful, deep colour that turns darker over time and a curvilinear grain is created when you cut it.
“We met in my office and sat down for an hour or so and sketched and brainstormed. We just talked about the idea of a stool and how it works. This one would need to be non-directional. I think Felix quite liked the thought of a seat that’s like a dish. It had to have a footrest. Felix started working out the geometry with a 3-D model and I’d give him feedback by e-mail.
“I think it’s good to approach problems with a degree of naiveté, because then you’re completely open-minded. I didn’t have a preconceived idea of what we’d come up with. I think Felix was probably more conscious of issues of economy, manufacture and material.”
– Alison Brooks
Dining table by Alex de Rijke of architecture practice dRMM and wood furniture makers Rob Barnby and Lewis Day of Barnby & Day
“As an architect, Alex is always involved in timber, and he’s always trying to push cross-laminated timber. He had the idea of a round table to put in his new London office – a showcase for his clients.
“We started sketching ideas on the back of a cigarette packet. We talked about the sociable side of tables – a round table allows you to talk to anyone. We liked the idea that it was one solid mass and almost looked like a tree canopy. Each layer was made up of three panels about 20-mm thick. We glued layers together and put them in the press. When they came out, we cross-laminated them. It started to get an interesting grain, because the panels were going 90 degrees to one another.
“None of us were sure whether something that large could be turned on a lathe. Turning something that size is dangerous at 62 miles an hour, especially with glued-up wood, because the glue can fail.
“Alex has this ‘anything is possible’ attitude. We said, ‘Why don’t we scale it down, or do a range of side tables?’ He quite quickly said no. Makers are a little more restrained on the designs they come up with because they know they’re the ones who are going to make the furniture. Neither Lewis [Day] nor I want to use an insane amount of timber or an extremely complicated design, or we can’t sell it. Architects are used to working on a larger scale. They can come up with amazing pieces because they can afford to.”
– Rob Barnby
Garden shed by fashion designer Paul Smith and furniture designer Nathalie de Laval
“We had a one-hour brainstorming meeting. Very quickly we knew we’d approach it as a ‘Paul Smith’ shed: classic with a twist. One influence was the Luis Barragán house in Mexico, with that big window in the plaster wall. Another was the black-stained fishermen’s huts in Hastings, England: the classic shed but in crazy proportions. Our shed is a 10-foot cube, the size of Paul Smith’s first shop in Nottingham.
“We were limited to exterior-grade hardwood. Cooking it at 200 degrees makes it weather resistant. I went to the timber yard and chose ash. I think we used up the entire stock. The wood turned out to be amazingly rich. We cut the board with a rough saw, on an angle with a rebate, so each board sits atop the other and makes it weatherproof. When we cooked it, some parts burned and you can still see the char – it smells fantastic, a bit like burnt coffee or chocolate brownie.
“It was basically like building a mini-house. Because of the big window, we required an engineer. I spent two full days building the base because not only does it have to rotate on wheels, it has to be able to be taken apart and moved around. It’s got to stand for 30 years in someone’s garden – it’s not just for show. There’s a list of people who want one now – including Terence Conran.”
– Nathalie de Laval
Extendable fruit/cheese bowl by architect Amanda Levete and architecture student Win Assakul
“Amanda has a five-metre table at home and wanted a bowl to run down the middle. She gave me a brief. It should be narrow, three metres long and extendable. She also wanted the components to fit in a bespoke box that looked like it was hewn from a single block of wood.
“I have no woodworking skills at all – I had to pick it up as I went along. I had experience with computer-aided design, so I designed this bowl on my computer, thinking we would CNC it [on a computer-controlled router]. But Amanda wanted to do it by hand.
“We chose walnut for its aesthetic – it’s a rich, dark wood that becomes richer when oiled and has a heavy, beautiful grain. The deeper you cut into it, the more grain you reveal. Walnut is only beautiful on the inside – outside it’s covered with gooey bark. I sent the plank through a planer to get it to the right depth. It went in the machine looking like hell and came out amazing. I spent most of my time on the dovetails between pieces. The box was six pieces of walnut mitred together so you don’t see the seam.
“The relationship worked out well – Amanda’s just offered me a job.”
– Win Assakul
Doorknob, light switch, shelf, hooks and door by architect John Pawson and designers Gwendolyn and GuillaneKerschbaumer of Atelier Areti
“For me, the whole point of a project like this is the fresh perspective you get from working with new people. I wanted to support Gwendolyn and Guillane but I also wanted this to be the sort of collaboration where the other parties don’t feel you’re looking over their shoulders all the time.
“Rather than commissioning a specific piece of furniture, I was interested in exploring the things you touch and use everyday, that are moments in the life of a place, as well as objects – switching on a light, opening a door, hanging a shirt on a hook, taking book down from shelf. Some of these are small physical elements in themselves, but they come together to make the atmosphere of a space.
“Walnut wasn’t an option for us because there’s so much demand and not enough supply, so we chose oak. We wanted a wood that shows the geometry against white walls.”
– John Pawson