c-210.09a
tree-trunk bench
200 x 55 x 95 cm
This collection of tree trunk furniture was designed as part of the Nature Project. Eek was keen to use wood after it's first stage of processing as raw planks, complete with the rough edge of the bark. He wanted to make the joints in the furniture as simple and honest as the material itself. The problem was that fixing screws in the same direction as the grain of the wood would prevent long-term durability, as screw fixings must run across the grain for sufficient strength. So the solution was to drill a hole in the wood and fill it with another, smaller cylindrical piece of wood with the grain running horizontally. This allowed the screw thread to take proper grip of the wood and secure the fixings in the heavy furniture. When the development of this idea was complete, Eek realised it was actually the same fixing technique as is used with a variety of mass-produced furniture.