Made from homegrown ash, this Sylva Foundation and National Trust collaboration of hand-crafted stools connecting education, heritage and sustainable woodland management has won top prize in the Production category of the Wood Awards 2024.
The elegant, limited-edition Ebworth stools have been created using trees felled on the Ebworth Estate due to ash dieback – a disease which could kill up to 80% of ash trees across the UK, according to the Woodland Trust.
Preventing the spread of this damaging disease necessitates careful, considerate forest management by forest owners like the National Trust. This collaboration helps to give these harvested trees a new life.
The collection entails three different designs – each inspired by a stool in the National Trust’s collection – and has been produced in small batches by students at the Sylva Foundation’s wood school.
“From their elegant design and sustainable nature, through to the story which these wooden furniture items tell – charting their journey from woodland to workshop and on to the end user – the Ebworth Stools embody the principles of the Wood Awards” Sebastian Cox, lead judge of Furniture and Objects.
Supporting the educational aims of the school, each of the stools incorporates a specific set of making processes and techniques which allows the students to take them from rough sawn timber to finished product.
While each stool tells a unique story both of the tree and the maker which reshaped it, they are unified through a common design language. The end product is a fully realised commercial product – available for purchase via the National Trust’s online shop.
By creating beautiful, high-quality products from certified Grown-in-Britain ash, the Sylva Foundation and National Trust are bridging the gap between education and practice – while illustrating the importance of active forest management.
“Responsible, sustainable forest management is integral to great furniture making. This project shows resourcefulness amidst environmental catastrophe, turning loss into life, and builds upon both the natural and national heritage which the National Trust is designated to protect. We must applaud it.” Sebastian Cox, lead judge of Furniture and Objects.
On accepting the award Joe Bray, Head of Wood School said:
We are delighted to have received this award. We share this award with three cohorts of our Professional Course students who have year on year produced such fantastic quality work. We also thank our client and collaborator, the National Trust, for having faith in our unique furniture making course.
The Wood Awards furniture and objects judges, a team of world-leading professionals, viewed in-person all shortlisted pieces before deciding the winners, in one of the UK’s most rigorous assessments for any competition.
Led by designer and maker Sebastian Cox RDI, the panel includes Caroline Till, co-founder of FranklinTill; Hugo Macdonald, critic and curator; Sophie Sellu, founder of Grain & Knot; and Johanna Agerman Ross, Conran Foundation Chief Curator at Design Museum.
Among the furniture and object pieces which won in other categories was Communion, by Giles Tettey Nartey, which won the Bespoke award; Endless Orbit by Oliver Spendley who won the new Sculptured Object category; and Karl and Rita from Alex Radivan of Nottingham Trent University, who won the student prize. At the 2024 Wood Awards this year’s best timber building was also announced as the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre, designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.
You can find out more information about all of the 2024 Wood Award winners by visiting www.woodawards.com.
The Wood Awards is the UK’s premier competition for excellence in architecture and product design in wood. Established in 1971, the Wood Awards recognises, encourages, and promotes outstanding wood design, craftsmanship and installation. Through the Wood Awards, we aim to continually encourage British designers and manufacturers to aim ever higher in the design world and showcase some of their incredible achievements to a national and international audience. As a not-for-profit competition, the Wood Awards can only happen with collaborative industry sponsorship from The Carpenters’ Company, American Hardwood Export Council and Timber Development UK.
Photography credits:©National Trust Images / Arnhel-de-Serra / James Dobson / Mark Bolton
