Lord Foster is the founder of Foster + Partners, the UK’s largest architecture practice and possibly the best known in the world. The practice is renowned for its rational, highly technically sophisticated buildings. Notable projects include the ‘gherkin’ in London, the Hong Kong Bank in Hong Kong and the new Spaceport for Virgin Atlantic. The practice describes itself as designing everything from the scale of a city to a spoon. Norman Foster (Lord Foster of Thames Bank)’s awards include the Stirling Prize, the Pritzker Prize, the Minerva Medal, the Prince of Asturias Award and the AIA Gold Medal.

Norie Matsumoto is a Japanese product designer who is based in the UK. Her background is in furniture design and making and she developed her industrial design skills when studying at the Royal College of Art. While she was there she was selected to take part in the ‘Out of the Woods’ project, designing and making a hardwood chair at Benchmark. Hers was called ‘Folded Chair’ and was designed to spend most of its time resting against a wall. Matsumoto received a Conran Foundation Award in 2012, and set up her design studio in London in 2013.

Foster and Matsumoto contributed and exchanged ideas during the design process but due to other commitments, Foster was out of the country much of the time. ‘This was also good for Norie because, as the designer interface, it gave her far more responsibility – even though I was on the phone to everyone during the final carving of the wood,’ he said. 

For over 25 years the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has been at the forefront of international wood promotion, successfully building a distinctive and creative brand for U.S. hardwoods. AHEC’s global programme of activities secure a future for American hardwoods by demonstrating the performance and aesthetic potential of these sustainable materials, while providing valuable creative inspiration and technical advice.

Benchmark is a leading company of craftspeople and designers, founded 30 years ago by Sir Terence Conran and Sean Sutcliffe. Based in West Berkshire on a converted farm, the team is now 50 strong in over 40,000 sq ft of workshops for timber milling, carpentry, veneering, spraying, specialist metalworking and upholstery, as well as design studio and furniture showroom. Benchmark works extensively on design solutions for hotels, restaurants, public buildings, offices and private residences.

The London Design Festival was conceived by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans. Building on London's existing design activity, their concept was to create an annual event that would promote the city's creativity, drawing in the country's greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to a deliver an unmissable celebration of design. First staged in 2003, the London Design Festival is now one of the world's most important annual design events. The estival programme is made up of over 300 events and exhibitions staged by hundreds of partner organisations across the design spectrum and from around the world.

The London Design Festival works closely with, and receives financial support directly from, the Mayor’s Office – having transferred support from the London Development Agency. The Festival also receives support from Arts Council England, as a National Portfolio Organisation 2012-15.

The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects that span over 5,000 years of human creativity. The Museum holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theatre and performance.

James Latham

Morgan Timber