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AMERICAN HARDWOODS AND THE FAMOUS GUARDIAN HAY FESTIVAL

The internationally acclaimed Guardian Hay Festival might seem an unlikely platform to showcase top quality creative design in American hardwoods. Celebrating its 21st year and attracting 90,000 visitors, the Guardian Hay Festival is no longer just about books and writers. This annual event is increasingly synonymous with topical comment, creative expression and groundbreaking debate on global issues. It is therefore not at all surprising that it attracts former US presidents, current prime ministers, religious leaders, leading scientists and some of the world’s most inspirational and creative writers and thinkers.

Speakers this year include former US president Jimmy Carter, Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, controversial author and commentator Salman Rushdie, Hollywood actress Kathleen Turner, award winning architect Ken Shuttleworth, chess grand master turned politician Gary Kasparov, environmental campaigner and writer George Monbiot and American novelist John Irving, among the many famous faces. What might be surprising about this event is where it is held - in a small market town in the Black Mountains on the Welsh borders. But those in the know are very familiar with Hay-on-Wye and its extraordinary connection with the world of books and writing – in a town of 1300 inhabitants there are 39 bookshops.

With no international conference centres in this part of the world, the organisation of the Guardian Hay Festival presents a huge logistical challenge – how to comfortably accommodate 90,000 visitors, hundreds of speakers and artists and turn a field in the Welsh valleys into a quality venue to host 477 events in 10 days. The answer is careful planning, a lot of hard work and an eye for detail.

Because of its informal style and rural location, the Guardian Hay Festival is inevitably dominated by temporary structures and short-term solutions. And it was a chance discussion between event organisers and the European Director of AHEC (the American Hardwood Export Council) about the event’s increasing environmental ambitions and desire to use more sustainable materials that prompted the idea of a customized and permanent solution to one aspect of the event’s infrastructure – the stage furniture and stage sets. So began what may seem an unlikely collaboration between the American Hardwood Council (the global wood promotion campaign for sustainable hardwood) and the famous Guardian Hay Festival. And the result is stunning bespoke furniture pieces in American red oak, designed and made by renowned UK furniture maker Phillip Koomen and a complementary stage set made from American tulipwood, created by local designer Clare Keil and made by Silverwood Exhibitions.

Phillip Koomen’s red oak collection for the Hay Festival is design and wood craftsmanship of the highest standard and comprising 10 chairs, 4 lecterns, 4 occasional tables and a large discussion table. The choice of American red oak with its distinctive grain patterns and warm tones makes a strong fashion statement and exudes style and quality. Phillip’s reaction to the wood is very positive: “This is the first time we have worked with red oak and we were very impressed by its colour and consistency. From a practical point of view it was good to machine and seemed less brittle than other oaks we have worked with. Using a 3 coat oil finish we have been able to capture and enhance its natural colour and characteristics.”

Red oak is growing in popularity in Europe as more and more designers like Phillip are discovering the potential of this good looking, versatile and sustainable hardwood.

On seeing the final pieces, Guardian Hay Festival Director, Peter Florence is delighted with the result: “The red oak is warm and exciting, Philip has matched the brief perfectly and his designs are elegant and creative, with an impressive attention to detail and a real understanding of the unique nature of this event.”

For Philip Koomen the commission represented the opportunity to apply ‘body conscious’ design principles which go well beyond ergonomics to incorporate the study of posture and the impact of seating on the human body. Choosing sustainable American red oak, he has produced a set of 10 chairs with a 95 degree seating angle which allows speakers to sit on their ‘seat bones’, aligning correct seated body posture and allowing freedom of movement and discussion. The slender curved arms of the chair are positioned in a way to facilitate the most comfortable and relaxing hand and arm position and movement for the occupant. The chair arms are formed from a three ply laminate construction that was then machined and shaped, which helps achieve the required strength. The whole approach to the chair design is very open allowing full rotation, avoiding back and neck strain. The back of the chair is high and thin and split down the middle to encourage greater lumber support. The end result, says Phillip, is “A chair that does not overwhelm the reader or interfere with audiences’ relationship with the reader”.

The discussion table is designed in two parts to allow easy storage and movement between events. The long oval top shows off the full grain and characteristics of the red oak and has a slot and opening detail in the centre to channel microphone wires and connections. The dramatic base design is inspired by the leaves of an open book, providing the necessary support and strength while bringing the necessary openness and lightness to the overall design. Running through the centre of the base is a triangular supporting panel in dark rich American black walnut, a perfect contrast with the red oak. The walnut panel has a clever double function, as it helps to hide any wires and leads from the audience view.

The 4 lecterns, one for each stage, provide a slim curved design with all the functionality and stability for speaker presentations. Panels hand carved with ‘The Guardian Hay Festival ‘give a subtle finishing touch.

“This was a wonderful commission for me - the opportunity to create a series of design pieces for the Guardian Hay Festival to a brief which reflected the style of an event which attracts leading names from around the world. And American red oak was a natural choice because of its distinctive grain, strength and beauty for stage furniture which will be around for many, many years to come” says Philip Koomen.

Hay-based designer, Clare Keil, chose the versatile American hardwood, tulipwood, to provide a practical and striking look to her stage set design for the Guardian Hay Festival. Festival Director Peter Florence set down a challenge to create a sympathetic yet highly visual backdrop for the main stages. The aim he said: “Is to come up with an interesting and thought provoking design that can also neutralize the space and put the speakers and presenters at their ease. The solution needs to be clean and pure, invoking a sense of calm appropriate to intellectual stimulation”. Another key part of the brief was to enable quick and easy installation and allow flexible spacing on stage in order to meet the very varied requirements of the programme.

Taking initial inspiration from the image of random books on a shelf Clare has produced a series of angular spatial panels which provide depth and dimension as well as a sense of solidity and drama, all very conducive to the thought provoking discussions and the stimulating commentary which sets the tone of the Guardian Hay Literary Festival. Wood is a perfect material for stage and set design with its strong environmental credentials, strength and light weight and its flexibility in terms of shaping and styling. American tulipwood in particular has great mechanical properties.

It is a smooth, tight-grained hardwood that is very strong and stiff for its weight - an especially good feature for large panels that need to be moved around swiftly without breaking backs. An exciting discovery for Clare, working with tulipwood for the first time, has been “Its subtle yet striking grain patterns and colour hues, soft enough to blend but with the ability to cast potentially complex shadows and reflections when illuminated”. Known more for being an inexpensive practical joinery and furniture wood, often stained or painted, more and more designers are now discovering it has a strong natural, almost marble like appearance that can be exploited to provide strong visual design solutions.

For David Venables, European Director of the American Hardwood Export Council, “The whole Guardian Hay Festival project has been both exciting and groundbreaking, with two really inspiring designers doing fantastic things with American hardwood. This is such a unique event with so many influential and interesting speakers and a great atmosphere, it has been really good fun to be involved and to see American hardwoods literally take centre stage.”

Email: maggie@thegoodagency.co.uk