Roy Tam is an award winning product design consultant, renowned for his inspiring sustainable design lectures, and specialises in Low Impact Furniture. His simple style is unlike most eco furniture, and displays scandinavian influences over his oriental origin, and are models of efficiency and people-friendly function.

Roy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Crafts Council's National Register of Makers, and a formaer member of the Chartered Society of Designers. His work combines a range of batch produced furniture with customer led innovative bespoke commissions. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Plymouth specialising in sustainability, a touring lecturer in sustainable design, a competitions judge and exhibition curator.

Nothing comes close to timber
Timber is ecologically head and shoulders above the world's structural materials. For example, aluminium as a raw material requires several thousand times the energy to produce compared with timber. While plastics are better, they still consumes hundreds of times, and recycled plastics uses more energy again. Composite boards help to reduce landfill, but timber is not only the greenest, but also has a double advantage. Trees also absorb atmospheric CO2 as they grow and 'fixes' it into its wood. This carbon acts as the world's carbon sink, and is not release back into the atmosphere unless it is burnt or decomposed.

Young trees fix more carbon
Fast grown ash is by far the most resilient. The faster it grows the stronger it is, so the best is often found in young thinnings, too small for saw logs, and are by-products of forest management. Ash is also self-seeding, making it the ideal 'renewable' wood. In comparison with an old tree, a fast grown thinning can absorb 30 times more CO2 in the same year, making it much more effective than a similar area of rainforest. Roy's timber is sourced very locally, some from the managed mixed local woodlands like Sir John-Eliot Gardner's organic farm an some from local Ilchester Estate, less than 10 miles away.

Avoid kiln drying to save energy
Unseasoned ash is the perfect material for steam bending. While industry kiln dries whole planks of timber and converts typically 60% to furniture, steambending heats just the component and uses a fraction of the energy, reducing the drying time from 3 weeks to 12 hours with a heat pump. After one hour's steaming, timber is curved and seasoned at the same time ... so long as we do the bending in 20 seconds!

Who buys from Roy?
Most of Roy's work is found in homes of private individuals, as well as corporate customers such as the Natural History Museum and Somerset County Council. Larger commissions include reception desks for the NHS and Ecology Building Society.

Roy lives in Sherborne, Dorset. He trained at John Makepeace's Parnham College at Hooke Park. Having helped evolve Trannon with David Colwell since 1991, his current business blends sleek contemporary style with ecological sensitivity. Previous to that, he trained in Industrial Design Engineering at Imperial College and the Royal College of Art, and also a degree in medical electronics. While working for Cambridge Consultants, he was instrumental in setting up the product design department at their parent consultancy Arthur D Little Inc. He was elected to be a member of the Design Council selection panel and received the Braun International Prize for Industrial Design.

Roy Tam
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Master of Design, Royal College of Art
British, born in Hong Kong 1957


Experience:
12 Years Director of Trannon Furniture with David Colwell 1992-2004
2 Years in Sustainable Timber Products at Hooke Park, John Makepeace's Parnham Trust 1989-1991
1 Year Management Consultant at Arthur D Little Inc setting up their product design office in the US 1988-89
2 Years Selection Panel for the Design Council's Kite Mark Awards 1983-85
9 Years Senior Product Designer and Project Manager at Cambridge Consultants 1982-1988
M Des RCA, Master of Design, Royal College of Art 1980-1982
DIC, Industrial Design Engineering, Imperial College London 1980-1982
BSc Hons, Biomedical Electronics, University of Salford 1978-1980


Features & Awards:
Braun International Prize for Industrial Design 1983
Cabinet Maker Magazine Prize, professional category 1999
The Independent Magazine, 10 Best Ecological Products 2002
Roy's part of Trannon's range is featured in Betty Norbury's book 'Furniture for the Twentieth Century'



Corporate customers of Roy's furniture include:
Bristol CREATE Eco Centre
The King's Fund for the National Health Service (NHS)
Ecology Building Society
Forestry Commission Wales
Natural History Museum
Southern Arts
Wessex Water Headquarters
Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Clients of Roy's product design include:
Black and Decker
Celestion Loudspeakers
Design Council
Gent Fire Systems
Guinness
Johnson Wax
NASA






Roy's work has been seen at these exhibitions:
'Eco Design Fair' Exhibition and slide talk, London 2006
'Gifited', Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton 2006
'Sustainable Design for a Low Carbon Future' Seminar and exhibition, Cultivate, Dublin 2006
'100% Detail" with Sustain Magazine 2006
'London Fashion Week' Ethical Fashion Forum and the BBC 2006
'London Design Festival' Eco Design Day 2006
'Fine Crafted Wood' exhibition, New Forest Trust, New Forest Show 2006
'[re]design 2005
'100% Design' 1995-2003
'To Have and To Hold' Ferrers Gallery 2003
'Art In Action' Oxford 1998, 99, 2003
'Raising The Roof' Walford Mill 2003
'House and Garden' 1997, 98, 2002-03
'Table Wares' Beatrice Royal Gallery 2003
'Artisan' Edinburgh Festival 1997, 98, 2002
'In Praise or Trees' with English Nature, Salisbury Festival 2002
'Wood x 10' Scottish Gallery 2002
'Homelodge Show House', Ideal Home Exhibition 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
Artifex Gallery 2002
'Rufford Gallery' Nottingham 2001-2
'Brewery Arts' Cirencester 2001-2
'Chelsea Crafts Fair' 1990-2001
'MODE' 1999, 2000-01
'Green Design' Bledffa 2001
'Wind and Wave' Beatrice Royal Gallery 2000
'Country Living Spring Fair' 1994-96, 98-99, 2000
'Decorative Arts Today' Bonhams 1992-96
'Greenwood' Contemporary Applied Arts 1995
'Conservation by Design' RISD Museum of Modern Art, USA 1994
'Christmas Show' Oriel Moystn 1992
'Living Room' Oxford Gallery 1992
'Having Made It' Oriel 1992
'IDI' 1992
'Exempla 92' Munich 1992
'Beyond The Dovetail' Crafts Council 1991-92
'In the First Place' Aberystwyth Arts Centre 1990
'Sewing' Parnham House 1985
Braun Prize, BMW Design Museum 1983-84
Design Selection, Design Council 1982





Roy has lectured or tutored at:
Bournemouth Arts Institute
Buckinghamshire Chiltern University College
Budmouth Technical College
Centre for Sustainable Design, Surrey Institute
Colchester Institute
Design Council's Designers in Schools Week
Godolphin School, Salisbury
Gryphon School, Sherborne
Hooke Park College, Parnham Trust
King Arthurs School, Wincanton
Manchester Metropolitan University
Plymouth University
Royal College of Art
Somerset College of Art & Design
South Wilts Grammar School
Southampton Institute
Tonbridge School
Yeovil College






Call: 0780 853 5863
Email: roytamdesign@btinternet.com

www.eco-furniture.co.uk









6 Dec 2006