Project Overview

Besides working with my hands building furniture in my workshop whilst being surrounded by the perfume of wood around me, I love heading to the surf every opportunity I get. My favourite surf spot is "Little Cove" tucked away in the Noosa Hinterland. The serenity of the rainforest that borders the beautiful coastline is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. With the glorious Sunshine Coast sun beating on the ocean and being partially sheltered by the hinterland creates waves that are luxuriously warm, inviting and plentiful. It's a surfer's dream spot. Inspired by my favourite surf spot in the world - "Little Cove" in Noosa, I wanted to design a piece to celebrate this enchanting place in the world that has restored me time and time again.

Organisation

Marxcraft

Team

Designed & Hand Constructed By Will Marx

Project Brief

Little Cove is a Love Seat that is surrounded by the beautifully formed "waves" hand made from individually crafted layers of Hoop Ply. While collectively, they are the same, they are in reality each as subtly different in form, shape and colour as the next.

The Mother of Pearl finished "waves" and satin fabric are representative of the times of the day when the Sunshine Coast sun glistens over the ocean, creating a blinding white brilliance over the water. The small expanse of beach wraps and curves around the rainforest that is the backdrop to this little cove as depicted by the cove-like shape of the seat.

The beach is dotted with seashells that's washed up by the waves, hence the small little Mother of Pearl buttons that border the back of the chair.

This is my interpretative piece on the silent awe and beauty of a surfing paradise from the perspective of the furniture designer and maker.

Project Need

As a furniture designer and maker, I wanted to demonstrate that furniture is more than just a utilitarian functional piece. Like the clothes we wear or the hairstyles we select, furniture is representative of the person and individual within. This doesn't have to be achieved by carving elaborate images but can be achieved as a sum of all its part. "Little Cove" is a project that challenges the individual to look at how every element is compiled collectively to convey an experience when seen in its entirety. As a passionate surfer, I wanted to create with my hands the experience that is evoked within me when I'm surfing in my favourite spot in the world. I hope "Little Cove" captures the raw beauty of the view that greets me when I am surfing back to the beach on Little Cove...

Design Challenge

The design challenge in the designing and building of this piece was narrowing down the magnitude of the experience and image I wanted to create. The entire image of the rainforest backdrop, along with the sandy beaches, curling waves and warm Sunshine Coast weather was overwhelming when seen in its entirety. How do you design a 3 dimensional piece of furniture to capture the elements and emotions of such an expansive imagery? Working with a medium like wood made it even more challenging as the solidity of the material in its raw form is such a contrast to the refined form I had in mind. As a surfer the waves was the major attraction for me and I wanted to focus on the power and allure of this element. Once I was satisfied that I had pinpoint my feature, the other features of the coastline, the sun and simple elegance of the place quickly fell into position.

Sustainability

All the materials that were used in the design and making of "Little Cove" was sourced locally. The major component used is Hoop Pine which is a native Australian specie found in Queensland and New South Wales. The colour is generally a light sandy colour which I wanted to use to convey the sandy coastline of "Little Cove" without artificially having to lighten the timber. Hoop Pine has a lovely fine texture that I thought would be ideal for conveying the elegance and lightness of the piece. I only source from 100% plantation grown suppliers that are certified to the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). These certifications gives Queensland's timber industry access to a "chain of custody" process for green labelling its products as coming from sustainably managed forest resources and is not only economically sustainable but have a lower carbon foot print as a result of it.