AHEC

For over 30 years the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has been at the forefront of wood promotion in Europe, successfully building a distinctive and creative brand for U.S. hardwoods. AHEC’s support for creative design projects such as Connected, Legacy and MultiPly for the London Design Festival demonstrate the performance potential of these sustainable materials and provide valuable inspiration.

AHEC has pioneered the modelling of environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for hardwoods, an approach that has since been adopted by other industries. LCA measures a number of impacts: primary energy demand (from renewable and non-renewable resources); global warming potential; acidification potential; eutrophication potential; and photochemical ozone creation potential.

Jan Hendzel Studio

South London-based furniture brand Jan Hendzel Studio was founded by self-taught furniture maker Jan Hendzel in 2015.  The studio’s diverse portfolio of work celebrates British craftsmanship and natural homegrown materials. Merging traditional joinery techniques with digital manufacturing practices allows the studio to experiment with texture and function to unique furniture pieces that lay between sculpture and furniture. Sustainability is at the heart of the practice, and their focus on quality materials, longevity and a circular approach to design, contributes to the integrity of the projects they are involved with.

Since its inception, the studio has realised ambitious projects for leading architectural practices and design studios and in 2020 launched Bowater, the studios first collection of furniture which is made exclusively from British Timbers and demonstrates the untapped range and variety of timbers present in the UK’s woodland. The collection comprises of nine pieces, from a chest of drawers and sideboard to a series of desk trays and decorative sculptural objects.

London Design Festival

Established in 2003 by Sir John Sorrell CBE and Ben Evans CBE, London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world.

London Design Festival has since earned the reputation as a key calendar moment of London’s autumn creative season, alongside London Fashion Week, Frieze Art Fair and the London Film Festival, attracting the greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to the capital, in a citywide celebration.