Andrew Ward, Coopers Cot (ART, OBJECTS 2022)

Photos:

Rai Banda

The Coopers Cot is a piece close to my heart designed and built for my daughter Lola. Materials used are Canadian Douglas Fir salvaged from the Melbourne CBD, cork and polished aluminium. My intention for the piece was to create something warm and inviting, almost cocoon-like using curves and soft edges. I sequentially book matched the vertical grain staves on the coopered ends to instil a sense of calm and quiet. Plain sawn material was used on the stiles to accentuate the subtle stepped pencil round detail and to ease the transition back into the vertical grain of the cot rails. One of the obstacles in designing a cot made in solid timber was allowing for seasonal expansion and contraction in a way that didn’t interfere with my intended minimal aesthetic. The cot needed to be strong as a unit and well braced without attaching the mattress base to the external edges of the radius. My solution was a cork lined polished aluminium sub frame in 20mm solid bar. The frame spans from the two ends attached with threaded inserts with allowance for the ply base to be fixed from underneath which in turn acts as a bracing element.

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