Future Heirlooms presents seven new pieces by seven South African designers created to encapsulate themes of sustainability, longevity and quality created in partnership with the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), designer collective Always Welcome, manufacturers and designers Houtlander and timber importers BOS Timbers.
Always Welcome and the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) announced Future Heirlooms, a project to explore the future of sustainable South African design, in July 2022. Fast-forward three months, and the group of seven South African designers from three provinces across the country have created a series of works that not only look forward to the future of sustainable design, but also explore their own heritage and the story of South Africa’s rich design legacy.
Created in American red oak by celebrated hardwood furniture designer-manufacturers Houtlander and timber importers BOS Timbers, the seven pieces – by Dokter and Misses, Mash.T Design Studio, The Urbanative, Kumsuka, Kalki Ceramics, Joe Paine in partnership with Nathan Gates, and Nøde Studio – are a celebration of material and memory, and ask pertinent questions about our approach to the environment, says Roderick Wiles, AHEC regional director.
“We need to end our current throwaway culture and we need to use materials that have a low environmental impact. These issues should affect all our day-to-day decision making. Designers, especially, have a huge influence on how products are planned and with what materials. This project was the perfect platform for us to work with accomplished South African designers and makers, while also helping them to work with an abundant, versatile and beautiful, yet lesser-known American hardwood species.”
For the designers of the show, the project has offered a unique opportunity to explore alternative manufacturing methods, and the beauty and versatility of American red oak itself. “The material intrigued me from the outset of Future Heirlooms. I became fascinated by the seemingly endless possibilities of American red oak itself that, coupled with Houtlander’s special ability to work with timber, set my imagination alight and I just had to see what could be made,” says Thabisa Mjo, founder of award-winning Johannesburg based product and furniture design group Mash.T Design Studio of her participation in the project. The seven pieces will be exhibited at the Always Welcome Viewing Rooms in Sandton, Johannesburg, until November 2022, and will then move to the new Always Welcome Heritage House in Cape Town in January 2023.
Now Now – Digital grandfather clock and repository for family information and memorabilia.
By Joe Paine and Nathan Gates
American red oak; ultra-matt water-based sealer; custom digital timepiece.
Two defunct grandfather clocks handed down over generations loomed over the lives of designer Joe Paine and artist Nathan Gates, who have come together to reimagine the grandfather clock as a design, and conceptual marker. Their Now Now clock for the Future Heirlooms project looks toward the Memphis movement for design inspiration, and asks what role a grandfather clock would play in contemporary living.
Family Portrait
By Dokter and Misses: Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin
American red oak, oil paint.
First-time parents Katy Taplin and Adriaan Hugo, co-founders of Dokter and Misses, celebrate the next phase of their lives with a design that brings a family portrait into their line of product and furniture design – a literal interpretation of the Future Heirloom brief that “embodies the playfulness and chaos of family life”, Taplin says. “We wanted it to be sculptural and to have fun with it.”
Meterage: The Act of Measuring
By Mash.T Design Studio: Thabisa Mjo
Hand-carved American red oak; ebony slow stain; water-based sealer
Thabisa Mjo, founder of Mash.T Design Studio, looked to Umbhaco materials and garments – the traditional dress worn by the Xhosa people of South Africa – for her interpretation of the Future Heirlooms brief. Her table, which was hand-carved by Phillip Hollander (the cofounder of the Houtlander studio), is titled Meterage: The Act of Measuring.
In a literal sense the design approach considers measuring itself, asking how much fabric one needs to make the Umbhaco garment. But in another sense, and with an eye toward sustainable furniture production, it asks what the measure is of an object itself as Hollander carves the wood to “reveal” the Umbhaco hidden within the wood.
Fulani Chair
By The Urbanative: Mpho Vackier
Charred American red oak; water-based sealer
Designed to form an extension of The Urbanative’s 2018 African Crowns Collection, the Fulani Chair in American red oak was initially launched and manufactured in steel, and so Mpho Vackier, founder of the studio, set out to “simply have fun with the material aspect of the brief”, she says, and reimagine an already existing design. The lines of The Urbanative’s Fulani Chair design are inspired by the forms of the traditional Fulani braids and coiffures worn by the Fulani or Fula people, who make up the ethnic group in the Sahel and West Africa. The textures of the braided Fulani hairstyles further inspired the weaving detail and the ombre effect in the chair’s finishing, achieved by charring the timber in an “ombre” effect and sealing the chair to preserve the wood.
Ukhamba Table
By Kumsuka: Siyanda Mazibuko
Charred American red oak; ebony slow stain; water-based sealer
For Kumsuka founder Siyanda Mazibuko, whose previous design in thermally modified American red oak for AHEC and Wallpaper Magazine’s Discovered project was recently exhibited at the Milan Triennial, the Future Heirlooms brief presented another opportunity to consider how good design can bring people together. Mazibuko’s new UkhambaTable takes inspiration from Zulu Ukhamba drinking vessels, that are shared between friends and family at Zulu gatherings. From their highly burnished surfaces to the actual firing process, the Ukhamba table has been charred and stained to bring the traditions of the vessels to life in the design of the furniture piece itself.
DIVISIØN
By NØDE: Charles Haupt and Gerrit Giebel
Fumed American red oak; water-based sealer
The opportunity to work with a new material, and the specialised machinery that allows for it to be manipulated at the Houtlander workshop, created a new approach to the brief for NØDE studio, which specialises in working primarily with aluminium. The DIVISIØN screen it’s created for Future Heirlooms embraces technology to craft a surface that emulates the studio’s celebrated aluminium carvings through parametric drilling that references the style of the carvings. Featuring handmade aluminium hinges, and a unique fumigation treatment to the surface of the wood, the piece brings together separate media in a uniquely realised, technology-focused design.
DIVISIØN – NØDE
The Boomslang
By Kalki Ceramics: Nindya Bucktowar and Nikhil Tricam
American red oak; hand-fired ceramic tiles; water-based sealer
KwaZulu-Natal-based architects and ceramicists Nindya Bucktowar and Nikhil Tricam of Kalki Ceramics take their inspiration for their piece, The Boomslang, from the rhythm and colour of the scales of the South African tree snake, known locally as the boomslang. The layers of the piece, with their timber and handmade ceramic “scales”, take their form from the coil of the boomslang around a branch. This is an animal the duo celebrates as an “embodiment of existing in a visual harmony with one’s surroundings, while remaining simultaneously camouflaged – a tribute to a striking, exceptional creature, that made it a natural fit for the piece”, they say.
For more about Future Heirlooms, make sure to follow the design journey as it unfolds on the AHEC and Always Welcome websites and social media platforms over the coming months, and keep an eye out for further announcements as this exciting initiative evolves into its next phase.
Exhibition information:
Future Heirlooms runs until 30 October at Always Welcome in Sandton, Johannesburg:
17 Commerce Crescent
Kramerville, Sandton
Operating hours:
Monday to Friday 9am to 4.30pm
Saturdays 9.30am to 3pm Closed on Sundays
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