For the second year running, the RSA Student Design Awards have brought forward novel ways to utilise local woodland resources to stimulate inclusive and sustainable economic activity. In an Award category called ‘A New Leaf’, sponsored by internationally recognised designer and furniture maker, John Makepeace, with support from Woodland Heritage, two quite different ideas caught the judges’ imagination, with the winners sharing the £2,000 John Makepeace Award at the awards ceremony in June.
Harry Peck, studying a BA in 3D Design at Northumbria University, proposed ‘Raw Furniture’, a sustainable timber furniture range grown and crafted in Cornwall. The range would utilise an array of tree species and their unwanted offcuts, with a manufacturing process committed to supporting and celebrating the diversity of local woodlands, as well as helping to regenerate the local economy which has seen significant job losses.
Raw Furniture would promote increased planting in a county with just 8% tree cover, in turn encouraging dedicated woodland management. The furniture is simply designed to reduce waste and incorporates offcuts into smaller accessories. Responding to his award, Harry said:
“I have learnt a lot about forestry during this research process of the project and have found that is an area that really excites and interests me. I feel that it has influenced my career aspirations in that I would be interested in taking the idea further as well as taking much more consideration into where I source timber from in the future when making.”
Marianna Lordou, a BSc Product Design student at the University of Dundee, proposed a solution to a quite different problem. ‘Potium’ is a biodegradable plant-pot made from converted infected waste from mandatory felling measures in response to Phytophthora Ramorum, creating environmental and financial growth from suffering woodlands.
Larch in Scotland is particularly susceptible and there is a large management zone established to limit the spread. By developing a waste management facility in this affected zone, local jobs could be created, and high levels of infected tree waste material would be diverted from incineration to a valuable resource. The Potium plant pots themselves could serve as a commercial alternative to single use plastic nursery pots, as they biodegrade easily adding nutrients back into the soil. Reflecting on her experience taking part in the awards, Marianna said:
“I couldn't decide what to study at University: I had a deep passion for biology, as well art and design. This brief allowed me to combine both of those passions together. By integrating live organisms such as mycelium into my design proposal, I have come to the realisation that design is everything and involves different fields and complex systems. I'm proud to have combined bio-tech and design to propose a solution to pressing societal and environmental issues, and I aim to embrace this multi-disciplinary approach to my designs in the future.”