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Full Grown is a UK company that grows trees into chairs, sculptures, lamps, mirror frames and tables. It was co-founded by Gavin Munro in 2005.
In 2005 with a £5,000 investment Gavin Munro started to experiment with willow to grow chairs.[1] The original idea came from Gavin's childhood memory of an overgrown bonsai that looked like a small throne. The inspiration lead to growing trees into chairs, sculptures, lamps, mirror frames and tables.[2]
The idea of growing trees for 50 years then cut them into small pieces glue together in ways that can only ever fall apart didn't seem to make much sense. Better to grow the trees into one solid piece.[2][3] For example, a chair or a light shade. Ideally the tree would have the ability to re-shoot and in this way yield furniture the way an apple tree in an orchard does.[4]
Working together with his wife Alice Munro. The concept is to train young trees to grow over plastic molds until maturity. Thereby creating no wood waste. This process can take up to eight years to mature.[5]
2006 Full Grown started planting trees to grow furniture. On a 2.5 acre field around 3,000 trees have been planted with production getting underway in late 2011.[6][7]
The first prototype, The Vaila Chair, was revealed in a TEDx talk in Derby in 2014.
Gavin Munro was born in Matlock England.[8] He studied furniture design. He created driftwood furniture while in San Francisco.[3] Munro's mother in-law allowed the first prototypes of chairs to be grown in her garden. He co-founded Full Grown.[1]
In a two-acre field north of Derby Full Grown is currently tending 400 trees. They are only making 50 or so pieces a year.[3] The first batch was to be harvested in 2015 [1] [3] [9][10] Bulk of the pre-orders are from outside the UK most in France and the US with some orders from London, Hong Kong, Germany and Spain.[10] Thou they will need to have patience as the grown chairs may take as long as 10 years before they are harvested dried and finished.[11]
Full Grown are using permaculture ideas to help with pest control and tending the field.[1]
The chairs are based on 18th century "Shaker" with some mid-century Scandinavian design centering around the idea the function is intrinsic to usefulness.[9] The chairs are grown upside down.[7]
Lille September - November 2020 https://wdo.org/event/wdc-lille-2020-manufacture-a-labour-of-love/
https://louis200.com/projects/78 Paris, Singapore, LA, New York
https://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailpages/garden-futures.html
CID Grand Hornu, Belgium. October 2020 - March 2021, Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich. December 2021 - April 2022 Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden. April 2023 - October 2023 https://plantfever.com/About
The trees are trained along pre-defined routes following a blue plastic mold. The growing tip is shaped and held in place with small plastic clasps.[2] The trees are gently manipulated to create the exact shape of chairs, tables, mirror frames or lamps. You can't force the trees as a tortured branch dies back and will reshoot elsewhere. The shaping can be inch-by-inch over the span of a few years.[12] One tree has been planted specifically to grow each piece. Some of the pieces use grafting as part of the design.[2] This process of growing the piece take somewhere between 4–8 years.[13][14] During this time a piece thickens and matures before being harvested in the winter. Over several months the pieces are dried and seasoned. They are planed, cleaned back and polished to show the wood grain.[3][11]
Gavin Munro’s company Full Grown uses the following species of trees: They mainly use willow as it grows fast and is relatively easy to work with. They like the idea of offering other varieties such as cherry, oak and Gavins personal choice of ash. Partly to give a range of choice for customers and also to spread the risk of disease. Ash is very prone to fungal disease and die back."[1][11]
To grow a finished chair takes about four to five years with willow. It can take nine or more years to grow a chair in oak.[10][12]