Stile Stool
Designer: David Emblin // Date: 2007Described as 'a little piece of the countryside for the home', the stile stool is a small wooden folding stool designed to replicate a country stile. Stiles are used to help people cross from one field to another; Emblin's Stile Stool helps people diversify the way they use the household stool.
The Stile stool is minimal and simple. Its look differs very little from the countryside style from which it takes its inspiration and shape. As a stool however, it's extremely different. It subverts the utilitarian design of the common stool by resembling something else yet still fulfilling the stool's key function. The plain wooden structure, made from either ash or oak, makes the piece look even more pastoral.
The Stile Stool is available in Oak and Ash, which are both strong hardwoods, suitable for mass production. Wood has been used to make furniture for centuries and can be manufactured for both very cheap and very expensive items, from flat-pack Ikea shelves to Chippendale chairs. Like other materials wood comes in different types. Hardwoods are good for furniture, whereas lightweight woods, like balsa, are used to make model airplanes!
In the countryside, stiles are permanent wooden structures to help people climb over walls, hedges and fences. Designer Emblin has created a stool that which adapts the functionality of the countryside stile to fulfill the all the 'unofficial' uses of the standard household stool. The Stile Stool folds so it can be easily stored, and when in use it combines a comfortable seat and useful surface. It's a hybrid design — one that combines two elements to create a new, more valuable item. The Stile Stool is designed to be used at home.
The Stile Stool is made from FSC ethically sourced woods. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council, which means that the wood comes from forests that are well maintained and managed. Wood is an environmentally sound material because it can be continually replaced, uses fewer fossil fuels in manufacture than plastic and is biodegradable.
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