News

The Daily Telegraph featured an article in their Easter edition (Saturday, 7th April) with the above headline. The full article, by Religious Affairs Editor, John Bingham, can be read by following this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9190548/Pews-move-back-into-churches-after-plastic-seat-horror.html

The article notes some key changes in guidance from English Heritage and the Church of England:

“Officials at English Heritage, a guardian of the country’s historic buildings. have given their blessing to a new design of lightweight ‘stackable’ pews which traditionalists hope will drive ‘doctor’s waiting room’ chairs out of historic naves.
Faced with dwindling attendances on Sundays and a desire to attract new worshippers, the Church of England is in the midst of a drive to open up historic buildings for new uses such as concerts, plays or children’s playgroups.
But opponents say some of the modern chairs which have often taken (the) place (of pews) destroy the historic atmosphere.
English Heritage has stepped in with a solution .........and given its backing to the introduction of portable pews.
Church of England guidance now also encourages the use of portable pews.
Luke Hughes, a furniture designer who came up with the idea of a stacking pew 12 years ago, said “the official approval represented a breakthrough…..church chairs are diminishing some of the greatest architectural designs of all time. I couldn’t bear what was happening to a lot of those church interiors.”
Local church authorities have recently got behind the shift, encouraging parishes to consider pews rather than chairs.

See the full range of Luke Hughes Stacking Pews by following this link:

http://lukehughes.wardourdigital.com/index.php/support/screenbook/stacking_pews/

We are delighted to reproduce the article from the 16th March edition of the Church Times.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk

Luke Hughes and the new company chairman, Jeremy Cummin, are in Singapore for the International Furniture Fair in March. Luke Hughes will also be a guest at the International Furniture Night in Kuala Lumpur on 8 March.

Over the last 30 years, Luke Hughes and Company has become a thought leader in its market sectors, including corporate, institutional and luxury hotel spas. The company has an unrivalled blue chip client list and has established the reputation of providing the very best in British design and craftsmanship. It has completed over 900 boardrooms, worked with more than 25 corporate clients worldwide and 41 spas in international hotels, and is now looking to develop the Luke Hughes brand internationally.

Luke Hughes personally lectures worldwide on sustainability and the relationship between architecture and furniture.  Inspired by Luke, the company provides professional advice on the optimum use of buildings, showing users how they can inhabit their space more efficiently and breathe life into modern and historic buildings, through the delivery of beautifully resolved bespoke furniture. A good example of thought leadership is how we are changing the way people think about libraries in the digital age, and the integration of technology into sensitive settings.

Luke Hughes and Company has 30 years’ experience in furniture design with outsourced manufacturing, and is now looking for partners in Asia/Pacific. The company will support new international franchisees of the Luke Hughes brand through an established partnership approach, to provide additional specialist skills, a wide network of architects and niche suppliers, and an extensive catalogue of fully resolved designs.

In 2010, we were shortlisted for the Walpole Award for British Luxury Design Talent, which honours individuals and companies for their work in the luxury sector both in Britain and around the world, celebrating their outstanding achievements in design, craftsmanship, business and culture. Past winners include Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Dunhill, Paul Smith, Goodwood, Links of London, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Aston Martin, Burberry and Marc Jacobs.

In February, Luke Hughes gave the first of a series of three-hour lecture to students at the Royal College of Art on subjects including ‘Sustainability - what the eco-lobby doesn’t publish’, ‘Designing around the materials’ and ‘Technical aspects of timber design’.

The lectures are part of a programme, organised for the Royal College with visiting tutor, Sebastian Wrong (Design Director of Established and Sons), which is intended to mentor RCA students through a course dedicated to designing a chair in solid American hardwood whilst also calculating the Life Cycle Impact of the product.

‘The project is less about designing an indulgent product, than it is about the wider furniture-making industry, the understanding of each process and its environmental and cost implications’ said David Venables of the programme sponsors, American Hardwoods Export Council.

Luke Hughes’ institutional clients tend to seek chairs with at least 50-100 year life expectancy, and some of his chairs are still giving good service after 25 years or more - so he is particularly well-qualified to pass on specialist knowledge on the subject.

The programme continues throughout the next six months.

http://www.establishedandsons.com

http://www.rca.ac.uk

http://www.americanhardwood.org

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