Luke Hughes is a designer specialising in site-specific furniture in architecture, embodying the highest standards of British design, production and craftsmanship. His studio was established in 1981 in Covent Garden, and has since designed furniture for more than 50 Oxbridge colleges, 70 parish churches, 17 cathedrals, 5 Royal Palaces, 2 synagogues and more than 900 boardrooms for major city corporations.
In 2010, he was shortlisted for a Walpole Award for British Luxury Design Talent for ‘outstanding achievement in design, craftsmanship, business and culture’. In 2011, Stanton Williams, the architect of the Sainsbury Botanic Institute (for which all the furniture was specially designed) was winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize. Other notable projects include the British Embassy in Moscow, the New Parliamentary Building, the UK Supreme Court, Sainsbury Family Trusts HQ office building at North House (with Ian Ritchie Architects) not to mention St Paul’s, St Alban’s, Exeter, Hereford, Winchester, Bristol and St Giles Cathedrals. He designed the new furniture on the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, used for the Papal visit in September 2010 and the Royal Wedding in April 2011.
Luke Hughes sat on the Crafts Council for six years and was Chairman of their Grants Committee (1994-7). He is former Chairman of the Art Workers Guild, Honorary Designer for the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, and is a member of the Fabric Advisory Committee for Southwark Cathedral. He has, in recent years, been a judge for the Wood Awards and for the Koestler Trust (for art in prisons) and is now Design Consultant to the Singapore Furniture Industry Council. He is a regular lecturer to the architectural profession (on materials and sustainability) in the UK as well as the USA, Middle East, South East Asia, Australasia and India.