INDIA — On December 3 2024, the cross-cultural and international design collaboration ‘REFRACTIONS’ by Phantom Hands and Adam Markowitz was unveiled at Sabha BLR in Bangalore, India.
As part of BLR Hubba, the event is a two-week annual cultural festival where the city comes together to experience Bangalore in all its fullness and richness.
The collection was commissioned by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), the leading international trade association for the American hardwood industry. The collection by Phantom Hands was made from American red oak, cherry and maple, and includes a dining table, a bench, two pendant lights and a wall sconce.
Deepak Srinath, Co-Founder of Phantom Hands, said, “We had been talking to AHEC for a while, but it took some time to find the right project. AHEC understood that we wanted to be a part of the design process for the products that would get made as part of the collaboration.
“They introduced us to the architect and furniture designer Adam Markowitz, with an open mandate to make anything we wanted to. What was attractive to us about working with Adam was that he was a hands-on woodworker, with plenty of experience in working with American hardwoods. Adam came to us with an open mind and the idea for the products came out of several conversations we had with him.”
The initial brief involved Markowitz being given a specific architectural space as a starting point, with the aim of leveraging his specific set of skills. Aware of the work that Markowitz had done with bending and curvature in wood, Phantom Hands was interested in learning more about those techniques, so the work would involve bending and curvature to encourage the opportunity for skill-sharing. Markowitz was also asked to consider the Wood Rose, a unique flower, as a possible starting point. These key points formed the defining starting elements of the project and influenced the initial design process.
“My initial concern was to make sure that my work was imbued with an Indian-ness that was reflective of the collaboration and cultural exchange,” said Adam Markowitz, Founder, Adam Markowitz Design. “Working closely with Phantom Hands, the collaboration became far more personal in nature and became less about an ‘Australian in India’ or ‘Western Designer/Maker meets Indian Designer/maker’ and far more ‘Adam meets Phantom Hands’. I think the result of this interpersonal, process-based method speaks for itself in the work together—looking at the pieces, they are not something I would have arrived at working in isolation.”
Made from American red oak, the dining table is deceptively simple in structure, being two-facing half-cylinders, which have then been carved and shaped. The latter process was done on-site, with a pencil, jigsaw and hand tools. According to Markowitz, the two-facing half-cylinder technique is the simplest way to make a table with curves. Yet the final design barely has traces of the initial cylinder shape; the handwork and sculpting have taken the form elsewhere.
“Whilst I initially set out to design a light, the table concept came quickly and unintentionally, and I think it is my favourite piece of the five,” explained Markowitz. “When the prototype was remade, I was asked to draw the shape in 3D so they could reference it for cutting out the legs—I instructed them to use the prototype itself as the reference, as the shapes I had drawn, and cut would be better than the shapes I drew on the computer. I think this is an important element of my process laid bare. On remaking the piece, we cross-laminated the veneer into plywood internally to reinforce the structure of the shape to give the piece additional rigidity.”
The bench takes the same approach, utilising curves to strengthen its support capacity. Both the seat and the legs are extremely thin and would not be able to take the structural loads if they were flat. The curvature and the laminating process enabled the benches to be very strong with minimal material. The connections between the seat and the leg are so strong, they were able to undermine its strength slightly to create a floating detail between the leg and the seat, creating a sense of lightness and strength.
“I wanted to have seating to complement the table, and didn’t dare attempt a chair given the timeframe. American red oak was chosen for both the table and benches for its warmth, with a connection to mid-century oak pieces, for its strength in this structurally challenging application, and for the consistency of its grain/colour toning which meant that veneers could be readily matched,” Markowitz elaborated. “Building on my prior experience with lighting and the suggestion from Phantom Hands that it would be nice if there was a dialogue between the table and the lights, we also created two pendant lights and a wall sconce.”
Markowitz started with the idea of a shape which was “cut out” of the legs of the table. The cutouts resulted in two curved, petal-like shapes, which spoke to the Wood Rose starting point given to Markowitz by Aparna Rao, Co-Founder of Phantom Hands. The challenge was finding a means of intersecting the two cutouts to create shapes that were strong, elegant, and worked to conceal and reflect the light source.
One of the results is the Banana Leaf Pendant, named for its similarity to the Banana Leaf. It intersects two petal shapes along their long edges, creating a curved, strong central spine. Each petal shape flows out from the central spine in a convex shape that diffuses the reflected light. Suspended below the intersecting petals is a third petal, hugging the above form tightly and concealing the light source.
The other result was the Butterfly Pendant, which rotates the petal elements and joins them along their short edge, creating two bower-like concave forms reminiscent of a butterfly’s wings to reflect and diffuse the light. A petal is inverted underneath, which again conceals the light sources.
“While the lights in cherry and maple have been finished to express their lovely natural tone, red oak is known for its porosity and excellent ability to be stained. I took the opportunity to work with Phantom Hands to explore colour options, something that is a frequent area of exploration in their other work. We settled on a colour that darkened the oak, reminiscent of the teak that is a familiar tone in their collections and throughout India. Overall, these timbers work really well together with a gentle complementary contrast,” commented Markowitz.
On the other hand, the wall sconce takes the two petal shapes and intersects them face to face to create a surface which reflects the light, and a smaller shroud which conceals the light source. This design logic also creates opportunities to hide the wall mounting and wiring. Phantom Hands produced two wall sconces, a hardwired version and a plug-in version. One sconce was made with a blend of cherry and maple to match the pendant lights, and one sconce was made entirely in maple to celebrate the individual qualities of the timber species.
Srinath added, “Not only did AHEC via the Rossi Group provide us with three timber species to experiment with, they also connected us to technical experts to help us learn about working with each of these species. Access to this kind of expertise was invaluable, and we’ve already launched products in American hardwoods like red oak because of the knowledge we gained from his project.
“The environmental credentials of American hardwoods make them extremely attractive for us and the data on regeneration provided for each species helped us make clear decisions on which timbers we would want to use in our future collections. In fact, I would go so far as to say that decisions on which species we want to work with will influence the design of our future collections.”
Roderick Wiles, AHEC Regional Director, said, “During manufacturing, the team at Phantom Hands collected data on the volumes of the three species used to make the five pieces. In total (and including wastage), 0.77 cubic metres of American cherry, maple and red oak were used and through our Life Cycle Assessment tool, we can calculate that all of this wood would take just 1.72 seconds to be replaced in the American hardwood forest through natural regeneration. Furthermore, we know that, on arrival in Chennai port, the American hardwood lumber that was donated by The Rossi Group, would have been carbon negative.”
After working remotely in Australia, Markowitz worked in person during his trips to Bangalore and was able to help the team from Phantom Hands master methods for laminating timber. This included techniques for sawing veneer, techniques for stitching veneer together into larger panels, methods of jig making for pressing veneers into shapes, and methods for glueing with clamps and with a vacuum press.
Despite the language barrier, Adam was able to not only build a rapport with the team in India, but also learnt a lot from watching them work, developing a deep respect for their hand skills stemming from their long craft tradition.
“Through collaborations like this, which involve passing on much-needed technical knowledge and hands-on experience, as well as showing the beauty, versatility and environmental credentials of American hardwoods, we hope to encourage more manufacturers in India to choose them,” concluded Wiles.
