bethan laura wood: particle

‘particle’ furniture range

‘particle’ by UK designer bethan laura wood is a range of furniture designed during her residency at the design museum in london. influenced by the museum’s location at butlers wharf overlooking the river thames, wood investigated the historical usage of the building and the site. she discovered that it had been a banana warehouse when the port of london was the main site for importing and exporting all manner of goods to the UK from around the world.

in response, she has developed a furniture system based on the visual aesthetic of crates and packaging materials. this range of interlocking and stacking units has been designed to fit in with the museum’s café area, the different combinations of units allowing for flexibility of space. wood’s aim with ‘particle’ is to celebrate the intrinsic qualities of lowly, industrial materials, encouraging the user to look at the quality of these materials in a new light.

‘particle’ cabinet

‘particle’ is an extension of wood’s earlier series ‘super fake’. with this new series she has continued to use laminates as the main surface fabric of the design, this time sourcing a wide range of faux wood-laminate variations donated by abet laminati.

she has re-appropriated the wood laminates to create a new pattern inspired by particleboard, a material that is often considered low quality and mundane, transforming it into an original surface pattern. her aim is to encourage the user to reconsider the beauty of materials often consigned to temporary or low-cost construction solutions. the pattern has been developed to facilitate the use of various sized off-cuts and samples. the laminate is laser-cut into shapes and interwoven, much like a patchwork.

instead of containing ‘imported goods’, these laminated ‘crates’ have been designed to hold glass or foam components, which dictate each units’ function. the foam inserts have been upholstered with a bespoke knit fabric, the pattern being a further re-interpretation of the foam itself, made in collaboration with giannina capitani.

‘particle’ cabinet

‘particle’ furniture range

detail of marquetry work for ‘particle’

‘hard rock’ from the super fake series, 2009 image © designboom

wood is fascinated by the everyday surfaces and objects that make-up cities. for her, the city is a mass produced world made of layer upon layer of complicated elements, which due to scale of the city are often overlooked. the collection ‘super fake’ is based on working with ‘city fakes’, the walls floors and counter tops, used to emulate a desired surface, but which never seem to escape being classed as a second rate citizen to their ‘real’ counterparts. the pieces aim to celebrate laminates – ‘the chameleons of the surface world’; to evoke a feeling of detail and distance and allow escapism in the city.

‘hard rock’ from the super fake series, 2009 image by ellis scott

‘hard rock’ landscape furniture are made from laminate marquetry, birch ply and powder coated steel. it was designed to evoke a slice of landscape. the form play with the ambiguity of natural environments, inviting the user to explore the shape rather than being told the exact use for each section. the furniture uses a marquetry technique to celebrate all the different qualities of the standard laminates used, treating each one like a rare wood veneer rather than a cheap substitute.

‘hard rock’ from the super fake series, 2009 image by ellis scott

as part of the ‘super fake’ series, bethan laura wood also designed a series of silk scarves called ‘soft rock’. each scarf is based on a different rock or mineral. the outer edge of the scarf is dictated by the form of the rock rather than the conventional shape, allowing each to be worn in a different manner.

bethan laura wood’s work is currently on show as part of the design museum‘s designers in residence program on show now until march 8th, 2010. she also participated in designboom’s handled with care exhibition in 2007.

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