Meet your maker: The Australian architects turning to furniture design

Architecture and furniture design are disciplines that have always gone hand-in-hand, and with some of the best – Boyd, Eames and Le Corbusier (who once said “chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois”).

So too is the creative vision of these Australian designers not just about bricks and mortar.

Daniel Boddam

Daniel Boddam’s childhood was spent in the company of furniture design classics from the likes of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Joseph Hoffman and Le Courbusier thanks to his architect parents, who were avid collectors.

While the Sydney-based architect may cause toes to curl with the memory that he liked playing hide and seek in a Mackintosh chair (“looking back, that child’s perspective on the way you interact with furniture was really interesting”) his appreciation for the giants of modern design evidently sank in by osmosis.

He founded his studio in 2013 with the holistic intent of combining his passion for architecture and furniture design. Fittingly, his first furniture collection, titled Monument and released in 2015, is a paean to the monumental architecture of the ancient world, including a coffee table inspired by the Pantheon.

“Architects have always been drawn to the Pantheon,” says Boddam. “The table explores the idea of the platform or the podium to create a lower level slab. Some steps and a recession for books give it a bit of relief and, in the spirit of the Pantheon, I created a little oculus on the tabletop which lets in light and activates the recess; it lets you peer down and look at the books.”

The Monument collection is made of wood, stone and metal. The naturally varying nature of the triumvirate appeals to a craftsman who appreciates the way they make no two pieces exactly the same. “It’s the layering of different materials which gives each piece its own identity and personality.”

• Related: Furniture items that are worth investing in
• Related: The best coffee table books you can buy
• Related: The 90s item making a nightmare comeback

Boddam’s practice is grounded in the idea that furniture can be perceived as a kind of miniature architecture, exploring the same principles and ideas as a building only on a smaller scale.

He began designing furniture in his adolescence, sketching and doing woodwork. Following in his parents’ footsteps came naturally; soon came the realisation that his favourite designers were architects as well.

“I try my best to design things that are understated and elegant. I look for simplicity – not looking for large statements, creating a middle ground between modernism and tradition.”

The flip side for any architect known for the exacting, integrated vision of their high-end residential work is the risk that the client might not share the design vision.

“If you don’t have the right pieces it might not look quite right. You do a beautiful home and then they have these old relics that don’t suit the style, either because they can’t afford it or have this hang-up about it. It can be a bit schizophrenic.”

It has, he admits, pained him in the past to see his vision corrupted by the absence of follow-through, but these days Boddam is lucky enough to be in a position where he can choose to work only with clients who are passionate as he is about the fine details.

“Architecture is one thing, then you add the interiors, then you add the furniture. It really is the final layer of richness.”

Tomek Archer

It was 2002, when he was in second year of university, that Tomek Archer designed his first piece of furniture. It’s safe to say his Campfire Table delivered above expectations.

The glass-topped table with a three-beam base, designed to evoke the ritual of a fireside gathering, was recognised with The Edge Commercial Design Award at the Australian International Furniture Fair.

The Australian Financial Review went on to anoint it as one of the top 20 Australian design moments (it shared a page with the Holden Monaro) and it was purchased by the Art Gallery of Western Australia for its permanent collection.

Fast-forward 15 years and as well as undertaking a broad array of residential, commercial and masterplanning projects, his Sydney-based Archer Office designs furniture, some of it self-produced and some of it licensed.

For Archer, the notion of flexibility underscores the relationship between architecture and furniture.

“It’s a performative relationship where the furniture supports the architecture and extends its functional capabilities. You can’t predetermine everything in life and it’s those buildings that have tried to solve every problem that become redundant.”

To illustrate that philosophy, look no further than another Archer design known as The Wall – a series of flat-pack boxes that people can assemble as interior walls.

“It’s a human-scaled self-build project,” says Archer. “Allowing that loose fit and tailoring it with more flexible things that you can move around certainly appeals to me.”

Ben Edwards

Architects are control freaks, Ben Edwards freely admits. “We like to design everything,” says the Melbourne-based principal of Studio Edwards.

The creator of the XO Light, an elegant pendant paying homage to sailboat racing and yacht design, and the timber Offcut Stool, believes the trend towards small-space living is creating new imperatives for purpose-designed furniture. “If it’s a small space, or awkward space with sculptural, irregular interiors, sometimes that piece doesn’t exist.”

It’s a blurring of roles he expects to see more of in the future. “The roles naturally cross over. I love the connection with the making part of the building process – making objects is a nice way of connecting with what you’re doing.”

Edwards is enthusiastic about the possibilities of 3D printing as a means of overcoming the expense and time of conventional furniture making. Materials such as titanium and nylon are opening up a cost-effective way to create furniture and to prototype ideas that might have been months in the making using conventional methods.

“I’m currently looking at making a cafe table with a minimal footprint, and a lounge chair that incorporates luxurious materials such as leather.

“It’s really moving away from what 3D printing looks like in people’s minds.”