“Out of the Woods” by Ahec at Stockholm furniture fair

“Out of the Woods” challenged Design Products students to design, make and record the life cycle impact of a functional chair or seat in an American hardwood of their choice. The designs were developed in to working prototypes with the help of Benchmark, internationally renowned for its craftsmanship in wood and long-standing relationship with designer Terence Conran. The result was 12 very unique chairs each with a comprehensive environmental profile measuring environmental effects across a range of “impact categories”.   

 

The new iPad App tells the pictorial, fictional, scientific and factual stories of the 12 chairs produced for Out of the Woods. 

 

Stunning and creative visions of the chairs’ futures are conjured by photographer Petr Krejčí.

 

Some of the best writers in this country were asked to write pieces inspired by the project. Each has produced a poem or short story about a different chair.

The authors are: Tiffany Murray, Jenny Valentine, Damian Barr, Luke Wright, Joe Dunthorne, Tiffany Atkinson, Gillian Clarke, Sarah Salway, Stella Duffy, Patrick Gale and Aminatta Forna.

 

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the scientific analysis of the full environmental impact of products and materials from cradle to grave. It reveals the stark reality of any design decision and forces us to think beyond what we normally consider a finished product and to anticipate its effect now and into the future. The life cycle considerations and detailed graphs to show the true impact of manufacturing the prototypes are a feature in the App.

 

Each student has explored the many aesthetic, engineering and environmental qualities of hardwood in a different way. The app provides the background to U.S. hardwood species, the forest resource and what the inspiration was behind each design.  

 

Out of the Woods plays enables Ahec to confirming the potential for wood to play a very positive role in design and inform the debate about how to measure accurate environmental profiles for designs. The project has put hardwood at the front edge of the emerging debate on “green” design to deliver products with a positive environmental profile.

 

The Out of the Woods App includes: Species information, article on the American forest resource, detailed article on Life Cycle Assessment, design details for each chair produced in the Out of the Woods project, Lca results for each chair produced in the Out of the Woods project, creative writing for each chair produced in the “Out of the Woods” project, short films for Leftovers Chair, Well Proven Chair and Tree Furniture

 

It can be downloaded free of charge from the app store: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/out-woods-creation-12-hardwood/id564542011?mt=8 or by searching ‘Out of the Woods’ in the App store.