SLIS

Furniture design and wood joinery experiments.

Wood naturally holds tension. When growing, trees seek balance to remain stable on the ground. Whereas woodworking usually suppresses tension, this design uses it. The wood joinery technique, based on the elasticity and tension of the material, results in a sturdy, but lightweight furniture design.

The method and design

The method of this design is based on using the tension of wood, that is released when cut, in order to create a new kind of wood joinery.

Due to a sawing mistake, I noticed the large amount of tension that wood holds. A piece of timber that I accidentally only partially cut along its length showed the elasticity and tension that is released in the wood. This tension has a direct relation to the length of the cut and bending it creates a natural looking curve. The design principle that the length of the cut determines how far a piece of wood could bend formed the starting point for further experiments.

A wood joint is a technique to join multiple parts of timber to form a construction. Some parts of the timber are cut and removed to create space, another piece of timber can then fit in this space to join them. This design uses a variation of the slisverbinding (NL), or bridle joint (EN). However, instead of removing material is it bent away to create space for the other part to fit in.

The wood is bent using steam, as to prevent the material from splitting further. The design of the table comes forth from a consistent execution of this SLIS joinery method that I developed.

On display

Dutch Design Week 2022 is the first event where the project SLIS is shown. On display is a table that was designed and made using the SLIS joinery method. A short video offers a glimpse in the process of how this table was made. In addition there are wood joinery experiments on display that show other possibilities of the SLIS joinery method.

SLIS is an ongoing process that investigates wood joinery methods and builds furniture pieces. Follow the process on Instagram: vanderloohugo. For any questions or requests you can visit the project during the Dutch Design Week at PLAN-B. If you want to make sure the designer is present, please make an appointment in advance so we can schedule a time.