News

Luke Hughes and Company won another design competition in December, to design the new liturgical furnishings for the extraordinarily beautiful parish church of Holy Trinity, Cuckfield, Sussex.

The church traces its origins back to at least the 11th century. Athough the current buildings are largely 13th century, there is much evidence of heavy Victorian restoration, to a very high standard, by G F Bodley and C E Kempe. As part of the re-ordering by their current architect, Nicholas Lee-Evans, the parish have been determined to maintain the quality of this evolution in the new furnishings. The parish had invited a number of furniture designers to compete for the project before approaching Luke Hughes.

Colin Sewell-Rutter, the project chairman, wrote to confirm the appointment of Luke Hughes and Company, saying: ‘I am pleased to report that our team has unanimously decided that you should be chosen to design and fulfil our Chancel furniture commissions. We felt that you, unlike any of the other leading designers we have considered, listened to (and helpfully challenged) not just our own detailed brief but also very carefully to what our very special building is itself saying’.

The project is due for completion in May 2012.

Link to http://www.holytrinitycuckfield.org 
Link to http://www.lee-evans.co.uk

Luke Hughes was invited to Rotterdam as a principal guest speaker at the Houtag Conference 2011. Luke was speaking on ‘Where the tactile meets the technical’, a look at how key design factors can help extract the best value (and a 100-year life expectancy) from hardwoods. The lecture continues the series given in by Luke Hughes over the last few years in India, the Middle and Far East, as well as Australasia. Having designed furniture for over 30 years, Luke is uniquely placed to share his expertise with architects and designers and to analyse the trends, characteristics and species available.

Other speakers included Andrew Lawrence, Associate Director of Arup, who spoke about the structural considerations behind the Timber Wave, a sensational three-dimensional latticework timber spiral, designed by Amanda Levete. The Wave is 12 metres in diameter, made in American Red oak, and employs construction techniques and materials normally used in furniture making. The project was sponsored by the American Hardwood Export Council.

http://www.londondesignfestival.com/events/timber-wave-amanda-levete-architects
http://www.houtblad.nl/maak-kennis-met-de-sprekers-van-de-nationale-houtdag.html
http://www.americanhardwood.org
http://www.arup.com

Luke Hughes has been commissioned by Churchill College, Cambridge to design 400 new chairs to replace the originals in the dining hall, designed by Robin Day.  The funding is largely expected to come from alumni whose generosity will be recorded on brass discs on the rear of the chairs. The chairs are expected to be delivered in July 2012.

After 50 years, the chairs had finally come to their end of their natural, economic life - not least because of the modern presssures on Cambridge colleges of the conference trade, which greatly increases the ‘churn’ on furniture during college vacations. ‘It’s a great honour to be able to build on Robin’s knowledge’ said Luke Hughes, ‘fashions have changed and so have manufacturing techniques and today we have more theoretical understanding of the structural problems of timber stacking chairs - not least thanks to research by Cambridge University Engineering Department, which has had many students from Churchill College’.

The college have remained extremely loyal to architect Richard Shephard’s 60s vision for the Grade II* buidlings, as well as to retaining the synthesis of the architecture with its furnishings.

Luke Hughes got to know Robin Day (who died in November 2010 aged 95) through a shared interest in mountaineering - they met through the Alpine Club. Robin was a strong ski-mountaineer, as well as being one of Britain’s most celebrated furniture designers of the 20th century. Luke has climbed the North Face of the Eiger and made many exploratory expeditions to Tibet and the Himalayas (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Hughes_(furniture_designer).

http://www.churchillconferences.co.uk/gallery_dining.php
http://designmuseum.org/design/robin-lucienne-day