Aude’s Designpost is part of a wider collaboration between LDF, the American Hardwood Export Council, and three leading British furniture makers Benchmark, Sebastian Cox and Jan Hendzel that pays tribute to London’s neighbourhoods and presents the potential of an underused and highly sustainable material – American red oak.
Aude Saint Joanis’s design draws inspiration from Park Royal’s industrial heritage, referencing its barrel-making craft tradition. The Designpost represents a barrel in the process of forming, a nod to the dramatic transformation that the district is currently undergoing. Because Aude’s piece is made from oak – the principal material used by coopers to make barrels – there is a material connection, too.
Exploring the technology of cooperage, where liquid is used to swell wood to create tight forms, the staves have been set in a slot in the plinth and soaked to make them swell. The structural integrity of this glueless sculpture lies in the swelling of the wood.
The Designpost is located in North Acton Square and is one of ten that can be found in locations across London; Islington, the Design Museum, Shoreditch, Southwark South, Waltham Forest, Clerkenwell, Greenwich, Brompton and King’s Cross.
Made by Sebastian Cox
