Woodscape has been manufacturing street furniture in Britain for over 40 years. When the company’s founders first decided to use naturally very durable timbers to create street furniture, they wanted to focus on providing timeless products that fully exploited the design potential of hardwood.
Steadily growing from when Katy Hill and Richard Nelson joined the business in the early nineties, Woodscape is now a large manufacturer operating from a 45,000 sq ft manufacturing and distribution centre and employing 64 staff.
They pride themselves on their ability to work closely with architects, landscape designers and specifiers on both individual and large-scale schemes. The Olympic Park, Battersea redevelopment, Bath Town Centre and Birmingham New Street Station are just a few from a long list of large-scale projects, along with thousands of smaller-sized projects around the country. Some of the most satisfying projects for them have been the smaller-scale ones, which offer exciting creative challenges. The parameters of working within a restricted budget on a small scale, offers the chance to work directly with communities and see direct impact in those places.
Ranging from modular planter systems, Tooting benches (a modern take on the traditional garden bench), the Strata seating range, to bespoke solutions (an undulating seat at Peach Place, Wokingham).
The beauty and strength of the hardwood is core to their design process, with the natural long-lasting of the timber continuing to attract designs of all styles and tastes.
Many years ago, Woodscape took the lead in the Street Furniture sector by not just utilising FSC timbers, but in obtaining FSC Chain of Custody certification, as a statement of their principles in protecting the natural environment. Not only because the market demanded it, and commercially beneficial, but it was also ethically the right thing to do. FSC Chain of Custody represents the Woodscape business, as a responsible, globally aware company, eager to ensure their products reach the market without doing harm to the forests of the world.
While they found the administrative demands were not insignificant at first, with the processes and staff training in place, FSC CoC is now an everyday part of the business, bringing sufficient reward in offsetting the investment.
The focus on sustainability in material sourcing has only grown stronger since, with ever more specifiers keenly aware that the companies they choose must represent values that extend beyond their ability to simply deliver a product. It is also to maintain an ethical stance throughout manufacture. Woodscape are proud to be certified with FSC Chain of Custody and will continue to communicate its value to every customer for a long time to come.
This is a guest article. Discover more work and information from Woodscape online.