Markowitz Design
- FURNITURE + LIGHTING DESIGN •
T
here’s an intimate relationship
between Adam Markowitz and
timber that makes his handcrafted
furniture special. That and the
hours spent dreaming, drawing, carving
and testing each design until it becomes
what it is destined to be. Adam’s focus
is on making products that tell a story,
honour the materials, have meaning for
the maker and the user and, ideally, will be
handed down through the generations.
Markowitz Design is currently in
the Meat Market Arts House in North
Melbourne, where Adam works alongside
other woodworkers. He started the studio in
2014 while working for a small architecture
practice. It was at this time that he created
the Fred table, which celebrates Australian
Part of a “maker movement” away
from throwaway objects, Melbourne
furniture and lighting designer Adam
Markowitz is committed to crafting
pieces with foresight and meaning.Words by Mary Mann
Photography by Ben Clementtimbers and evokes the modernist simplicity
he encountered while studying in Denmark.
Adam has studied in Melbourne,
Tasmania, Denmark, the Netherlands and
the USA, and says it is the combination of
architecture practice, design education and
hands-on training in the art of making
that allows him to create the products
he does today. A balance of traditional
craftsmanship and digital processes is
also a vital source of opportunity.
Adam’s fine furniture training is evident
in the Assegai pendant, which features brass
details and curved timber. The prototype
was carved by hand. It took some time, but
Adam says this is what imbues the pendant
with such beauty. The light is now in
production, meaning it can be made more
affordably, but Adam believes it’s essential
that he make the prototypes himself so that
the valuable dialogue between designing
and making is not lost. “Every chair is
unique because every tree has its own
grain pattern ... The story of the tree’s life is
written in the timber and there’s something
very visceral about that,” he says.
“Wood doesn’t always do what you want
it to do ... But you can cut a board openand suddenly there’s the most beautiful
grain and you think, ‘I can’t use that on the
underside!’ A lot of these opportunities get
lost in mass production.”
The subtle curves on the Flea chair’s
backrest only reveal themselves to an
enquiring hand, similar to the handrails
Adam created on commission for a house by
Peter Stutchbury Architecture. It is when the
user becomes connected with the handrail,
or the chair, that they fully experience the
refined and considered details born of that
design-making dialogue and understanding
of materiality.
When not prototyping, Adam teaches
design and architecture at the University
of Melbourne. He is also working on a
number of residential architecture projects.
Across all this, Adam’s attention is on doing
things properly and sharing the value of
handcrafted Australian products. “It’s not
just me, it’s a wider maker movement away
from mass-produced throwaway objects,
driven by a hunger for authenticity. In
Australia you can still approach a maker
and say, ‘I want to make this,’ and that’s
an important and valuable thing.”
markowitzdesign.com01
02
04
03
01 Adam Markowitz of
Markowitz Design.02 The Assegai pendant
features brass details
and curved timber.03 The Platform bed,
seen in the Cabbage
TreeHousebyPeter
Stutchbury Architecture.
Photograph: Sam Page.04 TheFleachair’sjarrah
wedged tenons are a nod
to its big brother the Fred
table, which has a similar
construction detail and
modernist simplicity.STUDIO