MONUMENT

The commission

Monument was the first truly large-scale dining table I built, and it began with an exceptional single monkey pod slab sourced through a contact at a sawmill in Indonesia. At approximately 4.2 metres long, 1.56 metres wide and 8 centimetres thick, the slab was already remarkable before any work began. Its natural live edges were preserved, while black resin was used only where needed to stabilise and fill selected cracks without distracting from the timber itself. The finished tabletop weighs approximately 500 kilograms and was installed in a private residence in Capellen. Its sheer scale turned the installation into a project in its own right, with the weight becoming a serious consideration once the piece was brought into the finished interior. For me, Monument was an important project because it marked the point where the work moved beyond conventional furniture making into something much more architectural and sculptural.