Design

Designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance Debuts Furniture Collection Crafted From Discarded Burnt Cork

Portugal’s 2017 wildfires inspired the French designer's subversive line of chairs, tables, and a stool that pays tribute to the beauty and resilience of the country’s inimitable cork forests.

Photography by Nuno Sousa Dias.

Driving through Portugal’s mountainous Pedrógão Grande area during the 2017 fires inspired French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance to dream up a furniture collection using discarded burnt cork. Produced through his Portgual–based studio Made in Situ, the sculptural pieces are crafted from the charred bark remains of a harvest—a technique used to protect the “sobreiro,” or cork oak tree.

After two years of experimentation, Noé developed a series of hand-made burnt cork blocks that serve as the structural elements of the chairs and tables, playing with the material’s rougher textures typically designated as industrial waste. The result is a visceral collection of chairs, tables, and a stool that pays tribute to the beauty and resilience of the country’s inimitable cork forests, the largest in the world.  

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