Particle is a range of furniture designed during Bethan Laura Wood’s residency at London’s Design Museum. Bethan took her inspiration from the Design Museum’s location, at Butlers Wharf, overlooking the River Thames. Investigating the historical usage of the building and the site, she discovered that it had been a banana warehouse, when the Port of London was the main site for importing and exporting all manner of goods to the UK from around the world. In response, Bethan has created a furniture system based on crates and packaging materials. This range of interlocking and stacking units has been designed to allow for many different uses depending on their combinations.
Particle is an extension of Bethan’s Super Fake series. With this new series she has continued to use laminates as the main surface fabric of the design, this time sourcing a wide range of faux wood-laminate variations, kindly donated by Abet Laminati. Bethan has re-appropriating the wood laminates to create a new pattern inspired by particleboard (OSB Board), a material that is often considered low quality and mundane, transforming it into a surface pattern that is ‘original’ and eye-catching. The pattern has been developed so as to facilitate the use of various sized off-cuts and samples. The laminate is interwoven, much like a patchwork, a jigsaw, or more traditional marquetry surfaces. Instead of containing ‘imported goods’, these laminated ‘crates’ have been designed to hold glass or foam components, which dictate each unit’s function. The foam inserts have been upholstered with a bespoke knit fabric, the pattern being a further re-interpretation of the foam itself, made in collaboration with Giannina Capitani.
Particle is sponsored by Abet Laminati