A Decade of Daily Use – provenance, reclaimed timber and the true cost of quality design

10th Jun 2026Back to journal

In 2015 we were commissioned by University of the Arts London to design furniture for their canteen space at Camberwell College of Arts. The brief was simple: sustainability, local provenance and product longevity. A table, stool, bench and stackable chair.

Reclaimed materials sourced, machined and finessed within a 7 mile radius of the college, paired with British grown Ash from National Trust continuous cover forestry in the South West. The pop-up was expected to run until 2018.

Around 2017 Chelsea College of Arts commissioned the collection for their own canteen. The Camberwell pieces joined them, the collection coming together under one roof for the first time.

The hustle and bustle of thousands of students daily across three of London’s most celebrated art institutions, putting the pieces through their paces for over a decade. Solid timber, honest joinery, enduring quality.

Working with reclaimed timber is a studio speciality. It is not easy, but in return for its difficult demeanour you gain the stories of times past and a uniqueness to every piece. Keeping that flavour whilst achieving something refined and tactile is the quiet challenge. Every pock mark, every trace of a former life becomes part of the story. Layers of texture, warmth and character that virgin grown material simply cannot offer.

A decade on, not a single piece has returned to our Woolwich workshop due to defective workmanship. Not one. The table tops have been refreshed with additional finish, a little nourishment for a decade of daily use. When something is made with genuine care, people feel it. They invest in it. They look after it. That relationship between maker and owner is where real longevity lives.

This is what genuine sustainability looks like. Not a material choice made for a brochure. A piece of furniture, still performing, still beautiful, ten years into a life it was designed to live.

As a studio we often operate in a world where furniture is chosen on cost per unit rather than cost over a lifetime. Specified late in a project, against a depleted budget, as an afterthought to architecture and interior decisions already made. Built to a margin, built to be replaced, quietly eroding the value of authentic making and the people behind it. We feel that pressure constantly.

But when the relationship is right, when we are brought in early, when objectives and budgets are understood from the outset, the results are incomparable. Not because we work harder but because good design needs time to percolate. Fit for purpose, considered, built to last. That is a fundamentally different proposition to off the peg furniture dropped into a space at the end. UAL understood that in 2015. The results are still standing.

We’re delighted to announce our upcoming exhibition, ‘An Offering’, curated by Giles Tettey Nartey.

The Exhibition runs from 27th February – 17th April at 134 Forefront in Old street.

A Decade of Daily Use – provenance, reclaimed timber and the true cost of quality design

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An Offering – Forefront

18th Feb 2026