The village where we are based in western New York has seen a decline in the forest canopy. I have personally seen the removal of more than 50 trees on a .5 km street in the decade that I have lived here. Working with street trees is a major undertaking and presents the multi-faceted type […]
Category Archives: news and stories
Recombinant Flora Workshop Outcome
Designers & Forests thoughts on the Recombinant Flora Workshop for Research Through Design 2019
The Delft Botanical Garden shouldn’t exist. The plants within its walls are not natural neighbors. They are there through the intervention of man. They are there through the circumnavigation of the globe undertaken by Dutch traders, linking the country’s far-flung colonies to Europe and bringing together species that never should have come into contact. Now, […]
Recombinant Flora Workshop
We are pleased to announce a workshop that we will be running at this year’s Research Through Design Conference. This workshop invites participants to explore wellbeing – generating new knowledge, interpretations and definitions of Field research and design practice combine in the Recombinant Flora Workshop. The collaborative Designers and Forests will lead an exploration of […]
Announcing Gathering Forest and Community
At the turn of the twentieth century, a commitment was made to replant and preserve Iceland’s forests. Now, after more than a hundred years of growth, some of this lumber is ready to be transformed. Into what? That is what we will explore. From May 15th through May 22nd, twenty individuals from Iceland and the […]
The Story Behind the Hidden Frontiers Call For Entries Illustration
As Designers & Forests begins each project, we define a conceptual framework to study the region in which we are working. With Hidden Frontiers, the history of Central and Western New York is our inspiration. This is an area that has been called the American frontier, the Steel Belt, the Rust Belt, and the Burned Over […]
Efferention Publication Receives National Recognition
Students from the State University of New York at Fredonia, participated in the Beatle Kill & Aspen Die-Off through creation of a non-traditional publication, titled Efferention. Designers & Forests co-founder Megan Urban presented a small group of her students with the findings of the projects expedition to Utah. With her guidance, the students researched the factors affecting […]
Trio Stool
Daniel Byström’s TRIO stool is inspired by the heritage of Utah, which is historically connected to Scandinavia through many of the immigrants who settled in the region in the nineteenth century. TRIO draws from a simple, yet sophisticated, and sustainable form of craftsmanship. The legs are tapered and octagon shaped. They are fitted with the seat using a traditional […]
Designers and Forests featured in Disegno Magazine
Forests as Idea Generator in Disegno Magazine No. 6 feature looks at different designers who find inspiration in the materials and processes found in the forest environment. The article features interviews with project founders Jason Dilworth, Megan Urban, and Daniel Byström as they talk about the influence of forests themselves, and the economic and ecological issues facing communities dependent […]
