weonrhee repurposes construction wood waste into stacked tables inspired by architecture

inspired by architectural motifs and the korean landscape

Extending the lifecycle of construction materials and inspired by architectural motifs and the Korean landscape, Weonrhee’s ‘Primitive Structures’ presents a series of versatile furniture objects crafted from used wood. Sustainable and decorative, the tables are composed of four modules stacked to resemble a pagoda, with two differently sized core modules placed parallel to one another like projecting eaves.

The project’s definitive feature is the designer’s use of PSL beam — an engineering wood typically used for construction frames — used here to form the bases and tops of the tables. The material’s raw textures and sustainable nature have been embraced, celebrating in particular its primitive, decorative pattern evocative of veins of leaves or a tiger’s skin along the surface.

Unveiled at Milan Design Week 2023, ‘Primitive Structures’ received a winning prize at Salone Satellite.

weonrhee gives new life to used and discarded wood

The multifunctional ‘Primitive Structures’ can sit as side tables or stools, or purely decorative objects, with their primitive beauty, shape, and color deriving from the table-style dolmens that are widely spread in Korea. The works are shaped from recycled PSL beams which are made using materials from plywood and LVL production, with species commonly including douglas-fir pine and western hemlock among others.

Seoul-based designer Weonrhee sought to reuse the mass of waste from the country’s interior design industry, proposing a recycling scheme to create valuable design from the used and discarded wood. The prototype’s production process was carried out in a wooden furniture workshop, making use of the excess wood chips from the product processing to fill in the gaps on the surface of the PSL material and begin a new life as a functional and decor object.

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project info:

name: Primitive Structures

designer: Weonrhee

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