Presenting our new collection, Products of Silviculture

This month, the Sebastian Cox studio launch Products of Silviculture, a characterful collection of heirloom furniture designed and made with a nature-first perspective.

Produced in limited quantities each year, using coppiced wood from the Cox’s ancient woodland in Kent, our team skilfully harvest this abundant material before thoughtfully transforming it into beautiful pieces of furniture.

Constructed from coppiced hazel, hornbeam, birch and sweet chestnut partnered with carefully sourced British wood, each design showcases the rich and lively nature of this entirely renewable material.

The collection comprises a coppiced hornbeam & elm desk - £1,650, a coppiced sweet chestnut & cherry sideboard - £1,800, a coppiced birch & English ash coffee table - £825, a coppiced hazel & English oak side table - £695, and a coppiced hazel & elm chair - £880.

Born from Sebastian’s commitment to using resources in-line with what the natural world wants to yield, Products of Silviculture shines a spotlight on a ‘wilder’ material culture. By championing this under-utilised resource the studio adds value to Britain’s neglected woodlands.

This unique collection will form part of the studio’s Spring showroom, an exhibition of projects, products, and ideas from the Sebastian Cox studio, workshop and mill.

Sebastian comments “the key to being able to work with what nature wants to yield is reframing how we think about our materials. I see our woodland not as standing boards for furniture, but as a living ecosystem, which we can glean material from while increasing life within it”.

During Sebastian’s Masters in sustainable design, he began to explore the potential of coppiced wood. Coppicing, a traditional means of woodland management, is effectively pruning a broadleaf tree at ground level, usually done during the winter. Coppiced stems are harvested on cycles of 7-12 years, and the stool continually regrows when cut. Interestingly, a hazel tree might only live for 60 years if left uncut, but when harvested it can live for centuries.

Sebastian explains “in the UK we have an abundance of coppiced wood and a one-thousand-year history of working it, yet few contemporary commercial uses exist for it. If we changed our perceptions of what usable wood is, we could ensure this regenerative resource is valued. I still believe that many of the material challenges we face in society can be overcome by combining an ancient approach to materials and design with the amazing technological and scientific advances of today. We don’t leave the historical, traditional or ancient behind because we want to move forwards, we actively use it to make radical changes in our material culture”.

The Sebastian Cox studio act as an example that businesses can be forces for positive change. Products of Silviculture is made by our team in our forward-thinking, carbon-counting, zero-waste workshop in London. We tangibly measure the environmental impact of each piece using our Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This gives products a precise carbon value, as well as dimensions and a price.

As each piece of the Products of Silviculture collection is made to order, we welcome bespoke dimensions and custom adjustments.

The collection can be viewed in our London showroom (by appointment only) and is available to order through our shop where customers have the option to purchase in three payments to spread the cost.