Opposite page: Conor Taylor, Foresso
creator, flanked by the Bianco Mono
from the London Collection
Hello! Kindly introduce yourself.
My name is Conor Taylor. Over the past few years, I have developed Foresso (the
timber terrazzo) that we now manufacture in the UK using recycled materials.
What pulled you in into the world of industrial design?
I actually have a background in fine arts but as I was working in varied
workshops, I started to fall in love with manufacturing. To me, it's like a puzzle
waiting to be figured out. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, so it was great to be
designing the process for a material that is so random in its aesthetic. I could relax
and focus on how to better make it. Foresso has exploded in demand, and it's a
natural step to scale up into a much larger set-up for it. And I wanted to be part of
a company that could follow a policy of ethics and constant improvement.
What spurred the development of Foresso? Was there a singular eureka
moment that made you realize the potential of a product made from
recycled waste materials?
I had been working for a carpenter on a variety of high-end projects. These
kind of projects often have a very disposable culture about them, where the
expectation is that it will all be torn out and replaced in a year or two. While I
was processing all this beautiful British hardwood and high-end veneers, I got to
thinking that there must be a use for the offcuts and planing waste rather than
just disposing of it all.
It then struck me that I hadn't seen a timber terrazzo before, and so I started
experimenting. Right from the start I had some goals in mind. I wanted to use only
offcuts and waste; it needed to be practical and great looking, and my ethical stance
needed to be taken through the entire process, and now through our business. For me
sustainability is not just about recycling; it's also about knowledge of your materials'
provenance, longevity and quality of workmanship. Finding a way to combine all
these elements was one of the big challenges during the initial development.
How is the creation process for Foresso different from other aggregate tile
materials, like stone tile terrazzo?
We've adapted machinery and processes from both woodworking and stone
terrazzo, and although it is similar in some ways, our in-house processes involve a
lot of techniques from different industries. For instance, we modified a machine
that is for processing animal feed to produce our end-grain wood chips.
The major difference between the two is that most stone terrazzo is cast
in huge blocks and then cut down to size, while we hand-cast each sheet
individually, allowing a much greater freedom to designers to specify what they
want as well giving a greater attention to detail to ensure high standards.
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