What is it about wood that makes it the perfect interior complement for sustainable architecture? Timber breathes, unlike so many other surface materials, and this gives it an almost human element. Trees and human beings are interlinked on this planet and it is hard to imagine one without the presence of the other, both culturally and historically. When one thinks of the treehouses of early humankind and the myriad of functions that wood has fulfilled down through the ages. To touch a piece of timber furniture is to feel, in form and structure, the building blocks of infrastructure from the very beginnings of time.
Wooden Furniture is the Perfect Interior Complement for Sustainable Architecture
Wood is the most sustainable building material, because it literally grows on trees. To sit upon a wooden chair or at a timber table is to be furnished with the most complementary supporting structures imaginable. The design and feel of beautiful wooden furniture is a boon for our souls. We feel more at home inside houses filled with timber in all its useful guises. You cannot derive the same sense of belonging from plastic things. It does not breathe, expand and contract, like wood does.
Wood does not last forever, in the same way that individual human beings do not endure beyond their allotted lifespans. We want architecture around us that sits lightly upon this earth. We want furniture, which exists in harmony with our own cycles of life. The interior of our domestic abodes should reflect similar time scales and notions to our own. Australian styles of wooden tables, chairs and fittings have a duty to evoke the songlines inherent in the Australian landscape. As above so below, within and without, there are responsibilities to uphold.
Wooden furniture is the perfect interior complement for sustainable architecture, because it fulfils these duties and understandings. We do not live in an exclusively material universe, there are capacities of soul, which engender strong feeling and these echo in our landscapes. Our interior worlds must be in tune with these themes and the things around us are duty bound to reflect these self-same songs. Lines and shapes are not random, they are a part of a greater symphony. The furniture in our lives serves us best when these items are designed and arranged in harmony. Enlightened individuals soon learn to surround themselves with the right materials and forms at home and at work.