Luke Hughes (furniture designer)

Luke Hughes (born 11 May 1957) is one of the United Kingdom's leading furniture designers and an accomplished mountaineer. He and his practice (Luke Hughes®[1]) have designed and made furniture for over 50 Oxbridge colleges, 100 parish churches, 20 major cathedrals and 5 Royal Palaces,[2] 2 synagogues and 900 corporate boardrooms, including Diageo[3] Unilever, Bloomberg and Reuters. As a mountaineer,[4] his expeditions over 25 years include exploring unmapped areas of central Tibet.[5]

Early life

Luke Hughes was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and St Paul's School, London before gaining an open history scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1974.[6] His final degree was in History of Art & Architecture. Luke acquired cabinet-making skills in the 1970s while working with the harpsichord maker Michael Johnson (then based near Luke’s home in Donhead, Wiltshire) during school and university holidays.

Design career

Hughes set up Bloomsbury Joinery,[7] a small craft workshop in the back-yard of a house in Lamb’s Conduit Street, London, in 1978, before purchasing the freehold of a former banana warehouse in Stukeley Street, Covent Garden, in 1981 – a building which, in 2013, still houses part of his studio. He established Luke Hughes and Company in 1986,[8] while producing design work and prototypes for Liberty & Co. and John Lewis Partnership.[9]

Hughes's design philosophy is heavily influenced by the principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement,[10] not least about the nature of craftsmanship. Another central principle is that in any quality building, the connection between architecture and furniture should be seamless: most buildings cannot function without furniture, yet inappropriate pieces grossly undermine great architecture.[11] Luke Hughes has written extensively about these issues. He is a regular writer for the architectural profession (mostly on timber and materials) and lectures internationally on sustainability.

Since 1990, he has focussed on design for public spaces, particularly in the educational, ecclesiastical, corporate and leisure sectors – usually for buildings with significant architectural interiors, historic or contemporary. His work is the subject of books, articles,[12] awards and has been featured in exhibitions.

Significant projects

In 2010, he was shortlisted for a Walpole Award for British Luxury Design Talent.[17] The award is given to an individual who has maintained the highest standard of British Design talent through innovation and design combined with British craftsmanship.

In 2012, he was one of the winning designers of the Church of England church chair competition.

Contribution to the design and crafts industry

He was a member of the Crafts Council 1991-97,[18] Chairman of their Grants Committee 1994-7, Chairman of the Art Workers Guild,[19] and Honorary Designer for the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers. He has been a member of the Fabric Advisory Committee for Southwark Cathedral and was a judge for the Wood Awards (2006-9) and for the Koestler Trust (2010) which encourages art in prisons.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce and of the Royal Geographical Society. Since 1994, he has been a Freeman of the City of London, and, since 2007, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, and, since 1995-2011, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers and First Assistant in 2008. He remains a member of the Art Workers Guild (since 1986), the Alpine Club and the Garrick Club (since 1990).

Mountaineering and other interests

As a mountaineer, he has scaled the North Face of the Eiger (September 1986),[20] climbed within 100m of the summit of Everest (May 1988),[21] and made expeditions to Greenland (July 1992).[22] Over 25 years he made more than a dozen trips to the Himalayas to explore much of the unmapped, unexplored areas of central Tibet.

He spent his gap year before university, in 1975, serving as a midshipman with Blue Funnel Line, during one of the final years before container ships took over from cargo-liners, working in the Far East. In the late 1970s, he was also a volunteer diver on the excavation of the Mary Rose, the Tudor warship that sank in the Solent in 1545.

Books and articles

Awards

Further reading

Press articles

Sources

  1. ↑ 'Independent Young Entrepreneur of the Year', Patrick Hosking, The Independent, 2 March 1989
  2. ↑ 'Carpenter carved out success by going against the grain', Rupert Steiner, The Sunday Times, 29 June 1997
  3. ↑ 'The spirit of enlightenment - Diageo headquarters', Architecture Today, 135
  4. ↑ 'Conquering Britons', The Times, 2 November 1987
  5. ↑ 'Mountains of the Gangdise or Transhimalaya of Tibet', Luke Hughes with Julian Freeman-Atwood, Alpine Journal, 2003
  6. ↑ 'Carpenter carved out success by going against the grain', Rupert Steiner, The Sunday Times, 29 June 1997
  7. ↑ 'Contemporary classics', Nicole Swengley, The Times, 8 July 1989
  8. ↑ 'Carpenter carved out success by going against the grain', Rupert Steiner, The Sunday Times, 29 June 1997
  9. ↑ 'Arts of oak - and steel', Peta Levi, The Times, May 1988
  10. ↑ ’The Odd Couple’, Aidan Walker, FX Magazine, September 1997, pg 82
  11. ↑ ’The finest seating to complement lighting’, Anthony Russell, Church Building, Sept/Oct 2007, pg. 24
  12. ↑ 'Designer profile', Christina Esposito, Architects Journal, November 2005
  13. ↑ 'The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom', Chris Miele (ed.), Merrell, 2010
  14. ↑ ’From Russia with Love – the Moscow Embassy’, Kenneth Powell, Royal Academy Journal, Spring 2000
  15. ↑ ’King of Theatres’, David Adshead, Country Life, 14 February 2008
  16. ↑ ’Pembroke College – Foundress Court’, Architects Journal, 12 December 1996
  17. ↑ http://www.thewalpole.co.uk/walpole-events/walpole-awards/view-event.aspx?nodeId=6559
  18. ↑ 'A crafty link with industry; Roger Trapp examines initiatives to bring traditional skills out of the cold', Roger Trapp, The Independent, 9 Nov 1997, page 6
  19. ↑ http://www.artworkersguild.org/members/luke_a_hughes/
  20. ↑ ’Home from the Eiger’, Luke Hughes, Alpine Journal, 1988
  21. ↑ ’On the Big Hill – a non-climber’s Everest’, Mark Anderson, Faber & Faber, 1988
  22. ↑ ’Lindergs & Lemons – Greenland’, Luke Hughes, Alpine Journal, 1993
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