‘We don’t kill trees’: Thai design studio founded by Belgians forges bespoke, handmade furniture from rustic hardwood
- P. Tendercool, a radical design studio in Bangkok, uses wood sourced from places like old rice barns and houses to create grand new items
- A single project can take weeks or months, crafted by Thai artisans with the help of an Italian bronze master who once worked for Salvador Dali
Take a dozen Thai artisans, a brace of Belgian antique dealers turned entrepreneurs, and an Italian bronze master who once worked for Salvador Dali – and the result is a radical design studio in Bangkok.
P. Tendercool specialises in bespoke, handmade furniture, an operation that’s aesthetically impressive, environmentally friendly, and a bridge across languages and international borders.
“Hanoi is the bastion of traditional Vietnamese arts and crafts, and we came across a hole-in-the-wall antiques shop with some slabs of rustic hardwood, which we recognised as jichimu or ‘chicken-wing wood’, which is used in making classical Chinese furniture,” Compernol says.
“These huge pieces of wood – some 150 to 200 years old – were traditionally used by families as a platform to sit on to keep them off the damp floor of the jungle. We asked the antiques dealer if he could find some more, then rented a truck, went out into the villages and started buying everything we could find because we knew the supply was finite.”
Altogether they amassed 60 pieces, some weighing up to 200kg (441lb), which were shipped to Bangkok.
“Back in Thailand, wondering what to do with our treasure trove, we decided to make the most beautiful tables that we could think of,” Grusenmeyer says. “We were sure we could create something people would like. So that was the – slightly elementary – business plan.”