Australian Wood Review – June 2019

64 Australian Wood Review

DESIGN

The I-Beam Bench was designed to fill

the brief from Tasmanian Museum

and Art Gallery’s need for public seating.

They asked for a piece that drew on

the industrial history of the old Bond

Store building. The shape references

the ubiquitous steel I-beams, but this

one is made from eucalypt.

I wanted to highlight the beauty

of industrial engineering forms,

elevate Tasmanian oak from a

structural timber very rarely used in

fine furniture and at the same time

provide robust seating which could

withstand the wear and tear of high

volume use.

To emphasise the shape, I painted

the endgrain with a bright blue

signwriters paint which is the colour

of the graffiti painted on the walls

from the early 1800s. There were

about 50 benches in total for that

job as well as another version for the

other museum buildings.

The bar tables and benches I designed

for MONA are another design that

went on to have a life beyond the

original commission, in domestic

and residential as well as corporate

settings such as the courtyard at

Design Tasmania.

3. Rinse and repeat
   Repetition. Repetition is practice,
   practice makes (closer to) perfect.
   You make money on the repeats
   and that repays you for the original
   investments into your research and
   development, but more importantly,
   repetition is where you adjust
   and refine.

While we don’t do production pieces

per se, our pieces do evolve over

time as we repeat designs and adjust

forms to suit different client needs.

Each time we make a version, our

fabrication process improves.

The first Frank’s Table was small and

made for a tiny converted barn in

Hobart and used one of the original

beams as the top. We’ve made

numerous versions of this table, and

Top: The Cheese Trolley for The Source restaurant at MONA

had a detailed brief as the cheese has to be kept moist but not

damp. It had to have just the right amount of ventilation, have

a waterproof drip tray to collect condensation, drawers for

cutlery and plates as well as full extension cutting boards. Food

grade functionality was essential and aesthetics no less so.

Photo by Rosie Hastie

Above: Rinse and repeat: Repetition is practice and practice

makes (closer to) perfect.’