The second installment in our three-part series on collaborations between the world’s best designers and the American Hardwood Export Council

The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has been a champion not only of hardwood timbers, but of the designers who use them, helping to facilitate exceptional outcomes across international architectural typologies. This series, “The Material and the Maker”, explores the close collaborative relationship between AHEC and designers over more than a decade. The series looks at collaborations in Australia and New Zealand, India, and Southeast Asia respectively, diving into the experimental projects and creative process as material and maker collide.

In our first installment, we looked at a series of work by some of Australia and New Zealand’s most prolific furniture artisans, where partnerships with AHEC produced immersive work that reimagined and recreated not only existing designs but existing vernaculars of industrial design. For this edition, we travel north, exploring collaborations between AHEC and designers living and working in the Indian subcontinent. Over a period of five years, these four projects have tested and redefined the work and creative process of some of India’s icons and innovators, combining the details and flair of their design vernacular with the richness, versatility, and tactility of American hardwoods.

Refractions

REFRACTIONS is a cross-cultural, international design collaboration between Adam Markowitz and Phantom Hands, designers from Australia and India respectively. After some time spent searching for the perfect collaboration, discussions between Phantom Hands and AHEC came to fruition when an introduction was made to  Markowitz, whose experience both as a craftsman and with American timber species made him the perfect collaborative partner.

Bridging timezones and language barriers, the collaboration was interpersonal and intuitive, with knowledge and skills shared and transferred across the Indian Ocean. The end result was a collection of five pieces; a table and bench crafted in American red oak, and two pendant lights and a wall sconce in varying materials of cherry and maple, each inspired by the form of a flower. The petal-esque curves of the lights are also replicated in the bench and table, where bended timber tops are held aloft by similarly curved legs, each of which defies logic with their delicacy. In both of these pieces two individual forms are made stronger by their connecting piece, a metaphor for the collaboration between Markowitz and Phantom Hands, and the role of AHEC in facilitating their meeting.

REMAKE

Left: Studio SFDW’s The Nightstand Right: Evsee Atelier’s Flamingo Server

If REFRACTIONS connected designers  from across the Indian Ocean, REMAKE was a project that united leading designers within India. In the project, five of India’s biggest names in design were tasked with remaking some of their iconic designs in American hardwood, bringing a new materiality and unlocking new possibilities for the process and outcome of their work.

Bram Woodcrafting Studio, Esvee Atelier, Kam Ce Kam, Studio SFDW and Studio Wood were the five artisans selected, each remaking three of their own existing pieces using American red oak, white oak, cherry, hard maple, tulipwood, or hickory, from a stock of product stored in India. The result was a diverse array of seating, consoles, desks, tables, and accessories, where the rich woodgrains and tactility of the hardwoods were shaped into silhouettes that have all the curiosity and flair often associated with India’s design vernacular.

“It was an enriching experience for me to work with American hardwoods,” said Srikanth Varma, Founder and Principal Designer, Esvee Atelier. “As exciting as it was to work with these woods, it’s been quite a learning experience to see them adapt to our designs. I particularly enjoyed working with American oak, because of its exceptional grain patterns and quality. It was an interesting collaboration to explore the potential of American hardwoods and express them through my designs.”

While the country has a rich history of timber craftsmanship, this project opened new possibilities, widening what is typically a limited market with sustainably sourced, high quality, beautiful hardwoods.

REIMAGINE

Another five Indian designers were enlisted for the REIMAGINE project, this time challenged to create their own version of a jhoola using various American hardwoods. Local architects Annkur Khosla, Naresh V Narasimhan, Prem Nath, Sanjay Puri, and Sonali and Manit Rastogi rose to the occasion, reimagining the traditional Indian swing sweat that tapped into the collective memory of the country.

Representing AHEC’s biggest design collaboration to date in India, the swings were manufactured by Bram Woodcrafting Studio, based in Mysore, and with Melbourne-based Adam Markowitz serving as a mentor for the project.

Tapping into their own recollections of the swings, the architects captured the spirit of the jhoola in new concepts that were refined and sophisticated, creating limited edition, legacy pieces made out of American hardwoods. From an intricate braided design to a swing inspired by traditional miniature paintings (Ragamala), the five swing seats each tell a story of their makers, their country, and their culture.

Mārum Collection

The Mārum Collection is a seating collection by Murubi, a design brand based in the bustling city of Mumbai. Mārum means ‘will change’ in Tamil, and true to this their two-part bench and stool collection is modular, functional, and flexible, inspired from the thought of interchangeability.

In both the bench and the stool, chunky legs and a curved seat form the basis of the silhouette. Crafted in parts, both are easy to customise, repair, and replace, referencing adaptability in their  durability and longevity. A middle platform in the bench’s seat also elevates and surprises, creating separation in a single form and providing a convenient spot for a cup of coffee or other essentials.

A celebration of the beauty and strength of timber, the Mārum collection is available in American walnut, American red oak and teak variants, with the seats available in the same suite of finishes, as well as cane and water hyacinth.

“We had previously worked with American walnut and loved the richness and depth of its colour,” says Murubi’s co-founder Jaymin Panchasara. “It brings a warm, luxurious feel to furniture, which aligned beautifully with the language we wanted for Mārum. American walnut is typically straight-grained, but it occasionally reveals wavy or curly figures that add character. We were also keen to introduce a stained variant in the collection, and American red oak was the perfect choice. It absorbs stain exceptionally well, allowing us to create a deep, even finish while still highlighting its natural texture.”

In a country with such a long history of exceptional timber construction, collaboration has opened a new spectrum of possibilities for some of India’s best designers. On a top-line level, the potential to specify and create with American hardwoods helps ease supply chain issues and provides a sustainably sourced material library to continue to support the growth and success of the Indian design scene. Dig a little deeper though, and these four collaborations reveal something of a symbiosis, where the style, flair, and intricacies of Indian design is uplifted by the richness and workability of American hardwoods, allowing local designers to create beautiful, unique work etched with memory, culture, and community.