#HTE

From Furniture Design to Coppice Fencing: Michael Bennett’s Sustainable Structures

UK-based Michael Bennett studied Furniture Design and Craft at Buckinghamshire University, gaining his degree in 2005. He then branched out into timber framing, learning to use tradition methods to create new structures…

…and repair old ones.

In recent years, Bennett picked up another skill: Coppicing, a method of wood production that exploits the ability of purposefully-cut trees to grow new shoots.

“Coppicing is a system of management which dates back to at least the Bronze Age in Britain,” Bennett writes. “Deciduous trees are cut down to the ground and allowed to regrow into many useful rods and poles.”

Using hazel, a tree native to Bennett’s region of Hampshire, he fashions the shoots into coppice fencing, known locally as “hurdles:”

The results, as seen on Bennett’s Instagram, are beautiful, natural, sustainable and functional:

Check out more of Bennett’s work here.