As well as running design futures agency FranklinTill, where her work involves supporting usually large corporations and organisations to move toward a more sustainable future, Wood Awards judge Caroline Till also has one foot in academia, having founded the MA Material Futures programme at Central Saint Martins and teaching on various courses.
With her experience – across both design industry and education – in activating material innovation toward positive environmental change, Caroline brings invaluable insight to the Furniture & Product Design judging panel.
We asked her why she wanted to be a judge for the Wood Awards, and what she hopes for the future of wood design:
CT: Often when people think about the future in terms of material, they tend to get caught up in the idea of things being white and shiny, but there are materials that we have used for centuries – that have stood the test of time – and wood is one of those.
“If managed and harvested responsibly, wood is an incredible, sustainable material, and I’m really interested in how our values in relation to a material that we have used for so long can be reinterpreted for future use.
“A big part of my work is trying to reconnect people to materials, to understand that materials are not static but exist in constantly evolving dynamic systems. It is important that we appreciate wood as a living, breathing material that we have a deep interconnection with.
“As well as material, there is another facet that I am interested in, which is the role of craft and making – and how our relationship to manufacture has shifted amidst a context of global outsourcing.
“I want to see ways that we can increase appreciation of making and skill, and how this can be pushed into a future scenario.”
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