:: Specific Design Brief

CAT 5: Using Timber

PRODUCT DESIGN UK

GENERIC DESIGN CONTEXT
When chosen and used with care, timber can be a very low impact material to use for furniture. Design and make a piece of furniture that uses timber in a sustainable way.

SPECIFIC DESIGN BRIEF
Design and make a piece of furniture using locally grown timber from a source where replanting has happened or where a tree was not cut down.

SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES
• The extraction of tropical hardwoods is frequently extremely damaging to the environment. To fell one mahogany tree loggers fell a considerable area of other timber that is left to rot. Deforestation is adding to problems of climate change as forested areas are ‘carbon sinks’, which have absorbed carbon dioxide. In many cases when trees are felled they are not replaced.
• Importing timber produces carbon dioxide through the energy used in transport.
• Composite boards make use of small sections of timber but often contain damaging substances in their adhesives.
• When trees are felled and replaced by young trees the carbon cycle can continue.
• Using a certain amount of timber creates a market for it and therefore a value in maintaining woodland.
• A monoculture of conifer trees can be very damaging to the local environment. Planting mixed forestry of indigenous species creates habitats for wildlife and very pleasant woodland for leisure pursuits.

FURTHER INFORMATION
KEY QUESTIONS
ISSUES & RESOURCES

If you decide to work on this design brief, don't forget to consider the issues of sustainability in the different phases of your designing and making.
Click here to access Sustain-a-balls