It’s often commented that we’ve reached peak 2019, but this really could be the post that does it.

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Obviously sustainability and climate change are hot topics right now and everyone is looking for ways to solve these problems, but I really think growing trees into the shape of chairs is taking it a step too far. Gavin and Alice Munro clearly don’t feel the same way as me though as they’ve currently set up a farm in Wirksworth in Derbyshire where do exactly that, with additional tree desks and tree lamps as well.

The couple set up the company Full Grown in 2012 and have been experimenting with growth techniques since then, learning how best to guide the shoots in the right direction to form the chairs. They seem to have cracked it though and are currently nurturing  250 chairs, 100 lamps and 50 tables. Groovy.

Here’s what Gavin had to say about the venture:

Instead of force-growing a tree for 50 years and then cutting it down and making it into smaller and smaller bits … the idea is to grow the tree into the shape that you want directly.

It’s a kind of zen 3D printing,

I wanted to combine care and competence and hopefully this is what we’re doing here.

You know the damage that we do with forestry.

We’re only just starting to really understand that.

This is kind of the opposite really, we use … ancient techniques that we used in the stone age.

I mean this all does sound rad and sustainable and great, but the only problem is that it’s massively expensive and kinda impractical in how long it takes for one of these products to arrive. And I mean really ridiculous on both of those factors – the chairs cost £10,000 and take between six and ten years to grow, the tables cost between £3-13000 and the lamps up to £2000.

Yeah, I’m out. I guess if you’ve got many to spare it’s a pretty good idea, but who honestly is going to spend ten grand on a chair except for a class A idiot or a millionaire. It’s completely ridiculous and I can’t believe they’re even doing it to be fair, but maybe they’ll prove me wrong and it’ll be really successful. We’ll see I guess.

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