Joinery in the spotlight

Joins become the design rather than an invisible necessity of construction. From Butt, Dovetail, Tongue and Groove to Miter or Box joints… there are many ways of bringing wood together to create wonderful pieces of furniture. But we’ve noticed some new and interesting ways of constructing furniture creating everything from subtle details to bold and fun forms, all putting the joint in the spotlight.

Scaffold shelving by Atelier Takagi inspired by scaffolding (the clue is in the title).

Rosemary Anrude uses screw-threaded legs together with oversized, colourful nuts to create her playful ‘Trestles and Stools’.

Flexible joinery by Dag Design-lab, uses silicone casting over an inner metal skeleton to create pliable binds that joins the pieces of wood together. Like many of these examples, it results in a pleasing contrast of natural surfaces and bold colours.

There was no shortage of interesting joinery methods at Milan design week this year. Jerszy Seymour’s ‘Workshop’ chair made from basic pine with joints of polycaprolactone wax, as part of his conceptual series Amateur, the wax being “a metaphor for the creative energy in all people”.

DaR chair by a young German designer Christof Schmidt, who developed a joining technique that uses polyurethane foam to infiltrate broken wood fibres and harden within minutes.

Why bother with joinery at all? Floris Wubben has encouraged a tree into shape by binding willow branches at they grow to create the ‘Upside Down chair’.  Check out Wikipedia for more on the history and techniques of tree shaping.

The Branca chair for Mattiazzi was designed by Industrial Facility, who used a combination of CNC and handcraft processes to create a seamless looking product. Whilst the joints are made to disappear, it is their invisibility that makes this chair visually intriguing.