Slow Wood: a meeting point between craftsmen and designers

October, 11 2013 • 10:00

Posted inGreen Design

In history, the beginning of industrial design is usually marked with the introduction of electricity, chemicals and crude oil into the production system. This happened at the end of XIX century in England, during a period called “Industrial Revolution”.

Before these mass-producing machines were born, artisans handcrafted every kind of object by using only a few tools and primitive forms of energy like thermal energy.

Their work probably took a lot of time, thus requiring a higher cost, but the quality of the objects produced was not even remotely comparable to the ones produced by machines, as artisans developed with time knowledge of materials and a sensitivity that even current machines cannot reproduce.

Nowadays, even if they are not on Facebook or Twitter, artisans of this kind still exist and they are often the great grand children of the people who refused to succumb to the rising industrialization process by passing down their skills and know-how from generation to generation.

 

 

 

 

The newborn Italian brand Slow Wood aims to promote these craftsmen and wood experts from a local level to a global one by putting their expertise at the disposal of designers.

By creating a collaborative network in which mutual exchange happens, Slow Wood intends to gather people interested in values like craftsmanship, wood culture and sustainability and offer an innovative vision of objects that are frequently seen as “old”, for example by employing modern design language and e-commerce tools to distribute their products.

 

 

 

 

Slow Wood is aimed at an international market, offering objects or pieces of handcrafted furniture made from selected sustainable wood to customers who care about cultural and traditional value of the product, environmental sustainability and social responsibility, who not only look for simple consumer goods but also unique design pieces created to last and become the heritage of their owners and of the generations that will follow.

 

 

 

 

Images © Slow Wood