Following on from her Utility Stacker chairs, shown at DES 2018, and part of her ongoing Ply-Works collection launched in 2017, Alice Jacobs exhibits furniture commissioned and recently installed at Craigbank primary school, Alloa.
The commission was the result of an earlier project initiated by Architecture & Design Scotland. On seeing her work at DES 2018, A&DS invited Jacobs to tender for a project with East Renfrewshire Council: to design innovative and creative furniture for Our Lady of the Missions primary school in Thornliebank. The brief was to furnish an under-utilised space to provide an additional location for learning outside the classroom. Jacobs, as lead designer of Flux CNC Studio Ltd in Glasgow, worked directly with pupils and teachers in workshops to help inform her design process.
Inspired by these two primary school commissions, Jacobs now wishes to make more visible her alternative to off-the-shelf / internet, mass-produced generic pieces. She is currently compiling a catalogue advocating Flux’s client-informed working process. Jacobs’ designs are cost and space-efficient, responding to the specific needs of schools. Her semi-bespoke, made to measure furniture, is constructed using computer-aided design and digital cutting techniques and is hand-assembled in Glasgow to comply with health and safety requirements. The furniture is made from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council certified) sustainably sourced birch plywood, impregnated with a fire-retardant water-based varnish manufactured in Glasgow by Smith & Rogers. Any unwanted off-cuts are sent to a recycling plant to be made into chipboard and fibreboard for the building industry.
Alice Jacobs lives and works in Glasgow. She is a designer/maker and graduate of The Glasgow School of Art. Jacobs’ extensive experience of digital cutting techniques has allowed her to apply computer-aided design and fabrication and a hand-finish to the production of a functional and sustainable range of furniture. Selected projects include: Space Pioneers: Our Lady of the Missions Primary School, East Renfrewshire (2018-19), The Lighthouse, Glasgow; Space Pioneers: Craigbank Primary School, Clackmannanshire (2019); Stacking Ring Set, V&A Dundee (2018); Utility Stacker, DES 2018, Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh (2018); Ply-Works Furniture collection (2017) and Architecture Fringe Festival 2017, Civic House, Glasgow (2017).
www.ply-works.co.uk
www.fluxlaserstudio.co.uk