ANGLES
“I hope that by encouraging people to get emotionally and
intellectually invested with their materials, we can help make
better choices in architecture and design.”
What would you say are perceived advantages
and plusses of handmade products as compared to
manufactured ones?
Each handmade object will have little differences, even
if they are the same piece, and it is this individuality and
connection to the person who made it that is the biggest
advantage for a handmade product. Handmade also tends
to imply smaller batches, which means that it is easier
to make better choices about sustainability and ethical
responsibility as changing the supply chains and processes
of very large manufacturing industries is extremely difficult.
manufacturing and of our thinking in general. I want to
be honest about the day-to-day difficulties of trying to
be a sustainable manufacturer while still offering something
beautiful and adaptable that can be used to tell the story
of a project. In recent years, there has been a huge
shift towards sustainability in design, so the reaction to
Foresso has been extremely positive.
I hope that by encouraging people to get emotionally
and intellectually invested with their materials, we can help
make better choices in architecture and design.
We've seen your suggested uses for Foresso, but were
there other applications by clients that surprised you?
Miter-joined skirting that matches the Foresso floor
has been one of my favorite uses; it had this brilliantly
modern yet classic look about it and was a really smart way
to use every last bit of the sheets.
What are some of your inspirations when it comes to
blending various materials in a tile? What informs the
mix and the hues that result from such a blend?
Some of my early inspiration actually came from
cooking. I'm a keen home cook and baker. The order of
combining ingredients or how they are mixed informed
some of my early tests, whether it was mixing wet into dry,
how workable the mix was, or how to get things to bind
well. The standard collection I designed was inspired by
parts of London that are familiar to me and tell a story of the
city. By doing this, I hoped to show people that they could
use a material that could tell their story and of their project.
For instance, our colorway Bianco Mono, which is London
Plane timber in a white binder, was inspired by West
London's Holland Park neighborhood.
After the first tests, it was trial and error across hundreds (if
not thousands) of samples to find the right consistency, how to
get the binder to stick well to the timber and how to use more
waste wood in the mix. Scaling up to sheet sizes was the biggest
challenge, as there are always unexpected challenges when you
change the scale of any kind of production. The color of the
binder was the easiest part, as there is a well-established supply
chain for the kind of pigments we use, allowing us to change
the look of the sheets as we want.
There seems to be a growing movement towards
handmade objects and artisanal products. Why do
you think this is so?
I think it's as simple as people wanting to feel a connection to
others, and although computers have allowed mass manufacture
to get even bigger and more homogeneous, it has also allowed
the resurgence of craft and small companies who can now find
their audience and survive without being tied to one tiny physical
location. Handmade products are one of the few things that
you can find this with, and it is nice to feel that you are also
supporting a small business rather than a gigantic corporation.
Did you have any realizations or insights since
creating Foresso that made a mark on you as a
creative?
It's okay to go against the accepted way of doing
things and that we can stand our ground without having
to bend to what people think the market wants. It’s been
amazing to find an audience that responds positively
to this. At the moment, I'm just loving seeing it grow,
knowing how far we've come, and that by continuing to
make better choices each day, we can achieve a lot more.
How has the market reacted to Foresso?
From the start I had a clear “brand” in mind,
although really it is a reflection of how we approach
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