Reconfiguration of A Tree

A graduate of the Contextual Design MA at the Design Academy Eindhoven, Thomas Vailly’s practice focuses on product design’s processes and systems. He explores themes related to industrial production, mass consumption, and commodification.

Reconfiguration of A Tree is a research project about the Pinus Pinaster, a resinous tree harvested for its pitch. La forêt des Landes in southwest France was once a hub of the pine resin industry. However, the ubiquity of alternative synthetic materials in solvent production has rendered resin collecting a disappearing industrial process.

Vailly developed a natural resin from the Pinus Pinaster tree. Through a series of formal experiments, he explored the material’s potential for possible design applications. He invited the designers David Derksen, Gardar Eyjolfsson, and Lex Pott to work with the black resin and pinewood, and each designer reconfigured a part of the tree into products.

Special thanks to Luc Leneuve, Jean-Jacques Villenave, Ben Vandenbroek, Laura Lynn Jansen, Aliki van der Kruijs, and Glenn Mosterd.