Gavin and Alice Munro have spent nearly two decades developing a method to grow functional furniture by shaping living trees. Their company, Full Grown, based in Derbyshire, England, uses a process that involves training saplings such as willow, oak, and ash over recycled plastic molds, pruning branches, and grafting points so each tree grows into a sculpted, single piece of furniture [1, 2].
Some of the trees are even grown upside down to create stronger structural curves needed for chair legs and backs [1, 2]. Each chair takes between six and ten years to grow, followed by roughly one year of drying before it is ready for use [1, 2].
Gavin Munro, who has a background in furniture making, was inspired by a bonsai tree in childhood and later by stitching driftwood found in California [1]. He and Alice founded Full Grown in 2006, and after years of trial and error, their first generation of chairs and lamps appeared around 2012 [1, 2]. Munro has said, "At the beginning I thought there would be a two or three-year learning cycle, but it's more like 12 or 13 years" [1].
The company views its work as a slow, 50 to 100-year journey to create beautiful, useful objects with minimal environmental impact. Gavin Munro said, "We're 20 years into what might be a 50 or 100-year journey" and called the project "the most subtle interaction we can have with the world to create useful, beautiful objects" [1].
He also reflected on the long process: "It was only after doing this project for a few years, a friend pointed out that I must know exactly what it's like to be shaped and grafted on a similar timescale" [1].
Full Grown continues its work shaping and cultivating living trees into furniture in Derbyshire, steadily growing their collection of living art and craftsmanship.
