Design Collaboration to Reinvent Scotland’s Church Pews

Mark Kobine a student from Edinburgh College of Art has joined forces with us to help develop a range of handcrafted design classics made from recycled Scottish church pews.

The collaboration between designer and community group is developing concepts for larger products and furniture designs which retain the original features of the pews, some of them over 100 years old and sourced from all over Scotland.

The first product in the new design range is a sturdy three-shelf bookcase, an assuredly innovative and functional customisation of a truncated pew. Made from rich Douglas Fir wood, varnished to restore its deep brown colour but with the bumps and marks of age left to signify its history.

On the first of the designs from the collaboration that aims to produce functional design classics steeped in Scottish history, designer Mark Kobine says ‘It’s really about story-telling. The wood grew for decades before being cut down for pews used in small parish churches. After years of bearing the lives of the church parishioners, I liked the idea of the church pews being used to bear the weight of stories in a different way. The undisguised dents in each unique bookcase record the presence of those church parishioners, their hopes and dreams.’

Tommy Steel, Enterprise Manager of the Greyfriars Community Project comments: ‘Having the opportunity of working with Edinburgh College of Art and bringing Mark's skills and ideas into the workshop has been really inspiring for our regular volunteers. This allows the participants to develop new skills, be involved in varied and creative work and gain an immense sense of satisfaction with the final product. The quality of goods we are now able to produce and how it demonstrates the ability of people who are generally devalued should be a message to the wider community.’