Forest Collection
Artek, 2023
In 2020 Formafantasma and Artek started a collaboration drawn together by a strong mutual interest in the relation between the forest and its exploitation for wood products.
The partnership was born out of Formafantasma’s Cambio, an ongoing investigation into the timber industry.
Artek and Formafantasma subsequently launched a series of collaborative advocacy projects aimed at translating Cambio's principles within the framework of Artek's supply chain.
The partnership was born out of Formafantasma’s Cambio, an ongoing investigation into the timber industry.
Artek and Formafantasma subsequently launched a series of collaborative advocacy projects aimed at translating Cambio's principles within the framework of Artek's supply chain.
With the Forest Collection Formafantasma reassesses Artek’s current strict selection criteria for wood, highlighting the impact of climate change and industrialization on forests. As a result, a new, more encompassing wood selection – referred to as “wild birch” – is now introduced into Artek’s collection.
Due to the limited temperatures and seasonal amounts of light, Finnish forests host a relatively small number of species, primarily coniferous types such as spruce, fir, pine, larch, and a smaller variety of deciduous trees like maple, birch, oak, elm, and willow.
Artek has been focusing on the use of birch wood since the very early days of the company. Birch is a hardwood, very pale in color, that grows naturally in Finnish forests. It is a pioneer species – one that is always among the first to colonize barren environments after clearcutting.
Due to the limited temperatures and seasonal amounts of light, Finnish forests host a relatively small number of species, primarily coniferous types such as spruce, fir, pine, larch, and a smaller variety of deciduous trees like maple, birch, oak, elm, and willow.
Artek has been focusing on the use of birch wood since the very early days of the company. Birch is a hardwood, very pale in color, that grows naturally in Finnish forests. It is a pioneer species – one that is always among the first to colonize barren environments after clearcutting.
However, in the latter decades of the 20th century, the surge in industrialization and global online commerce fostered a demand for repetition and perfection, leading Artek to adopt stringent criteria for raw material selection, favoring wood without any possible knot, color change, insects trails or any other natural variation in wood’s surface. This worldwide market preference resulted in the discard of a substantial portion of trees and its use for disposable applications.
Nowadays distinctive features such as bark striations, dark stains, wood knots and the trails left by colonizing insects due to climate change, are becoming increasingly prevalent in timbers. Instead of side-stepping these material’s shifts, the collection embraces these features.
Using this more inclusive selection of wood, more of the tree is used, maximizing opportunities for carbon dioxide capture. This significant change in wood selection criteria establishes new benchmarks for systemic change within the furniture industry.
Nowadays distinctive features such as bark striations, dark stains, wood knots and the trails left by colonizing insects due to climate change, are becoming increasingly prevalent in timbers. Instead of side-stepping these material’s shifts, the collection embraces these features.
Using this more inclusive selection of wood, more of the tree is used, maximizing opportunities for carbon dioxide capture. This significant change in wood selection criteria establishes new benchmarks for systemic change within the furniture industry.
The first product to be presented of the collection is Stool 60 Villi which embraces the natural marks and features in birch wood such as:
Wood knots
Knots are an indication of where the branches of a tree once emerged. As a tree grows, many of the lower branches tend to die and break off. The bases of those branches become covered by new layers of wood, resulting in the formation of tree knots.
Insect trails
Climate change and the associated shifts in temperatures and a lack of biodiversity, make trees in Finland more susceptible to damage from insects with wood-boring larvae. Phytobia betulae is a species of flies prevalent in Northern Europe, whose larvae tunnel through the trunk of birch trees. Trees while growing, close over these injuries with new tissue, leaving a dark trail on the surface of wood.
Wood knots
Knots are an indication of where the branches of a tree once emerged. As a tree grows, many of the lower branches tend to die and break off. The bases of those branches become covered by new layers of wood, resulting in the formation of tree knots.
Insect trails
Climate change and the associated shifts in temperatures and a lack of biodiversity, make trees in Finland more susceptible to damage from insects with wood-boring larvae. Phytobia betulae is a species of flies prevalent in Northern Europe, whose larvae tunnel through the trunk of birch trees. Trees while growing, close over these injuries with new tissue, leaving a dark trail on the surface of wood.
Wood core
As a tree ages and its trunk grows, the cells near the center of the tree become darker in color as a result of a naturally occurring chemical transformation. The core wood is the oldest part of the tree and, albeit dead, it is stronger than the lighter, outermost layers of trunk wood, but also more brittle. The legs of Stool 60 Core feature these darker wood elements, reintroducing this second-choice material, usually rejected due to its tendency to crack, into furniture production.
From 2024 onwards, the selection criteria for Stool 60 Villi has been extended to other L-leg products.
As a tree ages and its trunk grows, the cells near the center of the tree become darker in color as a result of a naturally occurring chemical transformation. The core wood is the oldest part of the tree and, albeit dead, it is stronger than the lighter, outermost layers of trunk wood, but also more brittle. The legs of Stool 60 Core feature these darker wood elements, reintroducing this second-choice material, usually rejected due to its tendency to crack, into furniture production.
From 2024 onwards, the selection criteria for Stool 60 Villi has been extended to other L-leg products.
