Designers Come Together to Exhibit the use of Natural Materials | Madrid Design Festival 2023

FDT Bureau

A group of designers created three playful wooden furniture pieces on show at Madrid Design Festival 2023. Developed by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), Natural Connections had been on show in the entrance hall of the cultural building Matadero Madrid. Designed by Inma Bermudez, Moritz Krefter, Jorge Penades and Alvaro Catalan de Ocon, each of the furniture pieces had been created to encourage interaction with wood. Here is a detailed report on FURNITURE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY (FDT).

A bench, a climbing frame and a hanging light installation had been designed in response to a brief provided by AHEC. Each of the furniture pieces had been made out of maple, cherry and red oak hardwoods that were sourced from the American forests in an attempt to encourage the use of material. Playful, original and innovative, the three designs aimed at providing engagement, excitement and a connection for visitors to understand and experience these natural materials.

The hanging light installation named Nube, meaning cloud in English, was designed by Catalan de Ocon. The 6m long hanging light is made of 4,000 interconnected spherical and cylindrical individual pieces of wood. Lit by several LED lights that are placed in the middle of the hollow structure, a brass cable runs from the low into the mesh structure, thereby branching into positive and negative electric currents. Positive poles run through the cherry wood in contrast to the negative poles that run through maple wood. An amalgamation of these two forms a complete circuit that illuminates the bulbs.  

Inma Bermudez and Moritz Krefter’s La Manada Perdida or The Lost Herd is influenced by Matadero's former function as a slaughterhouse and cattle market. For Natural Connections, the duo created a series of red oak, maple and cherry benches that draws inspiration from equine and bovine animals such as horses and cows. A minimal finish mimics the texture of the tree they are sourced from.

Jorge Penades’ created a tiered seating piece called Wrap which is connected by ball joints. For this, the Madrid-based designer glued and rolled 0.7m thick pieces of cherry veneer into tubes to create tubular hollow components, which form a bleacher-style seat when joined together.

Image credit: AHEC