Designer Redefines Furniture Design with Recycled Carbon Fibre

FDT Bureau

British designer Terence Woodgate recently unveiled an exceptional new collection titled Lightness of Form for Carpenters Workshop Gallery, which redefines the boundaries of material innovation and minimalist design. Presented during the London Design Festival 2025, the series includes a table, desk, chaise longue, chair and a cabinet still in development and all meticulously crafted from recycled carbon fibre. With its super-slim silhouettes and technically advanced construction, the collection exemplifies both the visual and physical lightness that its title suggests. Know more about it on FURNITURE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY (FDT).

The project is the result of a long-standing collaboration between Woodgate and John Barnard, the distinguished engineer credited with designing the first carbon-fibre Formula 1 car and serving as technical director for the McLaren and Ferrari F1 teams. Their partnership began in 2006 when they met at the Royal Society of Arts, having both been elected Royal Designers for Industry. During that time, Woodgate was curating talks celebrating design across disciplines and became fascinated by the potential of high-performance materials typically used in motor racing. This mutual curiosity led to their earlier collaboration on the Surface Table for Established & Sons in 2008, which was a groundbreaking piece that set the foundation for their latest exploration into material lightness and precision engineering.

For Lightness of Form, the duo employed Formula 1-grade carbon fibre and advanced tooling techniques to create furniture that merges sculptural beauty with ergonomic functionality. One of the highlights is the Aero Leg Table, an evolution of the earlier Surface Table. Spanning 3.6m in length, the tabletop is supported only at its corners by four ultra-slender legs, tapering to just a few millimetres at its thinnest edge. The underside of the table is lacquered, enhancing the illusion that the surface almost floats. The leg design takes cues from Barnard’s innovations in F1 suspension systems, particularly his use of flexure-pivot wishbones, resulting in legs that are not only structurally efficient but visually aerodynamic.

According to Woodgate, the project celebrates carbon fibre’s remarkable strength-to-weight ratio, allowing him to pursue a minimalist aesthetic inspired by artists and architects such as Eduardo Chillida, Tadao Ando and Luis Barragan. This design philosophy revolves around reduction rather than addition. Since the carbon fibre itself acts as the sole structural element, with no hidden beams or supports, each piece requires extraordinary precision and craftsmanship.

A significant innovation in this collection is Woodgate’s use of recycled carbon fibre, which exhibits a distinctive flecked finish. Unlike conventional carbon fibre that demands lacquering, the recycled variant is inherently robust and offers a more tactile, organic surface. The collection extends beyond tables to include a desk inspired by Sol LeWitt’s isometric drawings. From one angle, the desk appears as a simple horizontal plane, while from another, a vertical surface conceals two discreet drawers. This optical play, achieved through tapered geometries, creates a sense of impossibility while maintaining structural stability. Similarly, the chair takes cues from Donald Judd’s minimalist furniture, embracing pure geometric lines, while the chaise longue introduces an organic curvature and a magnetically attached headrest for adjustable comfort.

Image credit: Tom Carter