Pioneering work by Trannon is producing award-winning furniture from Britain's woodlands. Founded by David Colwell, Trannon is a unique business fundamentally designed to assist modern forestry, rural employment and at the same time batch produce exciting furniture.

Furniture for LIFE

Trees are the world's only renewable structural material and timber is responsible for a third of Britain's trade deficit. Yet 90% of Britain's timber is imported and, every year, almost half our timber crop is pulped, burned or left to rot. The problem is that industry look for tall, branchless trees and the isolated oak is neither.

To grow usable trees, the forester has to plant trees close together, discouraging them from branching. In the competition for light, each tree also reaches higher, trying to out-grow each other. Before the forest matures, four out of five trees will have to be felled or "thinned".

Ash thinnings are ideal for chair-making because, being fast grown, they are able to absorb more shock than almost all mature trees. Vigorously growing young trees also fixes more carbon from the atmosphere than a mature forest. In Britain, thinnings are ignored as a by-product of forestry. An enormous amount is sold cheaply for pulp or firewood. The more marginal sizes are cheaper left to rot.

Trannon has been pioneering new ways of using unseasoned thinnings (sourced from local woodlands to minimise transport), specialising in steam-bending which curves and seasons the timber simultaneously.

Not only are these bends stronger than the common laminations, this thinking also eliminates the need for kiln-drying and provides early forestry income for management into the future. For this thinking, they received the FX Green Seating award.

Trannon's chairs, also renowned for their comfort and healthy posture, can be found in the collections of John Makepeace, Victor Papanek and in the showcases at both the V+A and the Science Museums.

And they are increasingly specified to furnish public spaces for projects such as Bristol's Create Eco-Centre, Bede's World, the Crafts Council, the National Trust and Somerset and Hampshire County Councils. One of our innovations, winner of the Sit Public Seating award, is their spectacular gallery seating for the National Museum of Wales.

Not only did it break new grounds in its user friendly features, it also uses coppiced ash exclusively for its frame. Coppicing is a method of forestry in which the trees are "pruned" for wood and wildlife habit remains undisturbed. With its roots intact, coppice grows vigorously and gives a high yield. But due to its small dimensions and awkward properties, it has not been popular.

Trannon revolutionises this thinking by developing new methods of using coppiced ash in the round and before seasoning. This demonstrates that ash too small for firewood can be turned into valuable furniture.

"With these new demands for thinnings and coppiced wood, land-owners would have to think twice before ploughing their woodlands into the ground"