Megan’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 neighborhoods and presents the potential of an underused and highly sustainable material – American red oak.
Megan Makinson’s Shoreditch Designpost weaves in narratives such as the story of ‘The Theatre’, one of London’s first permanent venues, which was dismantled in 1598, and its timbers used to build the Globe. The piece features hand-turned red oak dowels which create the illusion of a theatre curtain at the base, referencing the history of woodturning that was once a mainstay industry of the area. Megan’s hand-drawn illustrations, inspired by the history of the district, have been applied to flat panels through use of pyrography. Aptly, when its time as a Designpost comes to an end, Megan’s sculpture is destined for a second life as a puppet theatre.
The Designpost is located outside the SCP store and is one of ten that can be found in locations across London; King’s Cross, Islington, Greenwich, Southwark South, Brompton, Waltham Forest, the Design Museum, Park Royal and Clerkenwell.
Made by Benchmark Furniture
