Material Driven Design
Words: Tous Mag editor | Image Credits: © Sebastian Cox |
Tous Mag caught up with Sebastian Cox Ltd - a design studio and workshop known for developing handmade timber furniture into contemporary design - to learn a little more about their sustainable processes and bespoke furniture. Read the full interview below.
Tous Mag: When and where did Sebastian Cox all begin?
Sebastian Cox: My parents built a business restoring timber framed houses when I was a child, which gave me a taste of life running your own creative and practical business. Their work required a great appreciation and deep understanding of historical design and making, which definitely rubbed off on me and played a key part in my own love of the materiality of years gone by. I grew up in the countryside and always knew I wanted to work in a way which allowed me to be connected to nature. My design studio and workshop has grown out of a project where I investigated and fell in love with coppiced hazel, through managing my own patch of woodland in Kent.
Tous Mag: What sort of pieces do you create in your studio?
Sebastian Cox: Simply put, Sebastian Cox is a design studio and workshop based in south east London. We make timeless collections of furniture, lighting and accessories in our workshop. We create spaces for brands, design furniture for production and creative installations in our studio. We give fallen trees a new lease of life in our mill. And we grow compostable furniture in our laboratory of biofacture. Our work is effortlessly both traditional and contemporary; championing British woodlands through making.
Tous Mag: What would you say informs your designs?
Sebastian Cox: We describe what we do as ‘material driven design’ so the means by which we make something are shaped almost entirely by the qualities of the material we use. These characteristics inform the design completely. Also, by default we tend to use traditional methods of making because they appeal to us; they are hands-on, they require skill and mastery. We feel a sense of pride in giving ancient techniques a new lease of life when we combine them with more contemporary methods of making.
Tous Mag: What drives Sebastian Cox to make and is eco conscious design important?
Sebastian Cox: We’re motivated by good design and by sustainability. Britain has a beautiful selection of hardwoods that are perfect for making furniture but often overlooked and we want to shine a spotlight on these species. We just don’t need to import as much wood as we do. More importantly though we also believe that by using this wood to make fine furniture we offer landowners an economic reason to manage their woodland. And a managed woodland has increased biodiversity and this is something we care deeply about. We are in a state of mass extinction and focussing on biodiversity is the most effective way of changing this.
'Modern life from wilder land’ our recently completed manifesto for nature-first land and resource use, sketches out how we can reshape our fields, woods, hills and coasts to meet our modern demands and the needs of our native wildlife. This document proposes change in what we consume and a change in our perspective to see wilder land as beautiful and bountiful.
Tous Mag: Is there heritage or tradition behind your making ways, or are you striving to form newer ways of making and building - perhaps through modern technology?
Sebastian Cox: The making techniques we use in some of our work are ancient, cleaving and swilling have both been used for centuries to work wood. Coppicing too, the means by which we harvest some of our material from the woods is also an incredibly old practice. However, we combine these things with CNC manufacture, 3D printing and power tools to make contemporary furniture. The combination and inventive application of very traditional ways of working wood within our contemporary designs is what sets us apart.
www.sebastiancox.co.uk
Instagram: @sebastiancoxltd
For general enquiries: studio@sebastiancox.co.uk
