A stack of freshly cut planks created from a felled ash tree
Planks created from the felled ash tree

One Tree | LDF 2022

The One Tree project brings together a group of designers, artists and craftspeople, all of whom have a shared love of making, of using materials sustainably, and of that most precious human resource – wood.

For London Design Festival 2022, SCP presents the One Tree exhibition.

When SCP founder Sheridan Coakley discovered that one of the beautiful ash trees in his garden was suffering from Ash dieback and would have to be felled, he had an idea. Rather than chop it down and make it into firewood, why not invite a set of like-minded creatives to see what they could make out of the tree? And with that simple idea, the One Tree project was born.

The One Tree exhibition showcases a range of different objects, by a diverse and previously unconnected group of creatives.

Max Bainbridge
Poppy Booth
Oscar Coakley
Sebastian Cox
Matthew Hilton
Sarah Kay
Moe Redish
Wilkinson & Rivera
Faye Toogood

The outcomes from the One Tree project are a diverse range of one-off objects of beauty, which both retain the carbon from the tree and give new material life to something which would have otherwise disappeared.

Max Bainbridge
Oscar Coakley
Sebastian Cox
Matthew Hilton
Sarah Kay
Moe Redish
Wilkinson & Rivera
Faye Toogood

The tree was felled in April 2022, and all of the participants came for a day to help cut, select and remove the pieces of wood. Sebastian Cox, a furniture maker and timber fanatic, used his mobile sawmill to plank branches and stems of the tree with his colleague Moe Redish. Everyone was given a choice of either taking a whole section of the tree, or selecting and cutting boards for use. The tree, which was not grown specifically for use as timber, was full of beautiful imperfections, which would have made it undesirable to a commercial sawmill, but quite attractive to the creative spirits involved.

The One Tree project seeks to create one-off objects of beauty, which will both retain the carbon from the tree and give new material life to something which would have otherwise disappeared

Grant Wilkinson creating planks with a mobile sawmill
Grant Wilkinson creating planks with a mobile sawmill
Seb Cox
Felled timber ready for selection
Moe Redish
Creatives involved in the One Tree project

Outcomes from the One Tree project will be exhibited at SCP’s Curtain Road showroom throughout London Design Festival, running 17–25 September 2022.

Sebastian Cox
Sarah Kay
Poppy Booth
Oscar Coakley
Moe Redish
Max Bainbridge
Matthew Hilton
Faye Toogood
Grant Wilkinson & Teresa Rivera

One Tree Collection

Further reading