Sebastian Cox

Sebastian Cox is a furniture designer, maker and environmentalist based in south London. He grew up surrounded by woodlands and raised by parents whose profession was to restore timber-framed buildings. It was a natural progression for him to study Furniture Design and Craftsmanship, followed by a Master’s Degree in Design, at Lincoln University, where he developed an instinct for abundant and overlooked materials.

Sebastian Cox founded his carbon-counting, forward-thinking, zero-waste workshop and design studio in 2010 on the principle that the past can be used to design and make the future. He believes that what we harvest, make and buy can be part of the solutions to our biodiversity and climate crises if we ask ‘what resources does nature want to give us?’

Sebastian Cox, Future Heritage 2015 Alumni

His business’s mission is to store 100 tonnes of CO2 in the wooden objects his studio makes each year, holding that carbon in people’s homes, community spaces and workplaces, while the woodlands regenerate, recapturing carbon and boosting biodiversity. Through advocacy and action, the business follows a desire to double the area of woodland and wild land in the UK by 2040, and show how its resources can be used.

Sebastian Cox is deeply motivated by the way generations of craftsmen have used a limited palette of biodegradable and renewable materials, extracted from the land in a responsible and connected way. Harvesting and milling his own British timber, Cox uses traditional techniques, without nostalgia but with respectful inventiveness and new technology, to create objects that are functional and understandable and as a result, beautiful.

His workshop produces heirloom furniture, lighting and home accessories. Sebastian Cox collaborates with other material experts, brands, interior designers, manufacturers and retailers, who share his vision for a regenerative material future.

Sebastian Cox has been selected as one of the most influential designers in London by the London Evening Standard and listed amongst Forbes’ 30 under 30 to watch. His work has received a Design Guild Mark alongside other accolades from design publications including Elle Decoration, Homes & Gardens and EKKB. He has been commissioned to design and make bespoke pieces of furniture for clients including Sir Terence Conran and Christopher Bailey.

‘Pendean’ By Sebastian Cox

At Future Heritage

Sebastian Cox developed a new collection for Future Heritage, ‘Bayleaf,’ which included an armoire, dining table and daybed. The latter upholstered with textile by Ismini Samanidou. He also produced a series of benches.

“Future Heritage welcomed us into the Decorex family. We went on to show our work there for four consecutive years and met an entirely new audience. It allowed us to meet and forge friendships with our talented peers. It also inspired commissions from our workshop and the benches were sold prior to the opening of the show.” - Sebastian Cox

Current work

Sebastian Cox is passionate about raising awareness of environmental issues, but also of finding solutions. His recent work includes ‘Landrace,’ a collection of thatched breadbaskets developed in collaboration with gallerist Sarah Myerscough. Made of heritage wheat, ‘Landrace’ is a comment on the chemically grown, systematically selected wheat, more commonly grown by industrial British farmers, that leaves the countryside bereft of wildlife. Sebastian Cox recently published his manifesto ‘Modern Life from Wilder Land,’ which explores his thinking on nature-first land and resource use.

In 2019 for the London Design Festival as part of the ‘Legacy’ project, he designed and made ‘The Writer’s Collection,’ a desk and chair for Amanda Nevil of the BFI. The studio also recently introduced ‘Pendean’ Sebastian Cox’s new ‘workaday’ collection of furniture, designed and made in batches to make the price as affordable as possible.

Cox has also, in collaboration with design thinker, Ninela Ivanova, designed and made ‘Mycelium and timber,’ a series of objects, using wood waste bound together with fungus (mycelium).

‘The Writer’s Collection’ By Sebastian Cox

If you would like to make an enquiry about Sebastian Cox and commissions, get in touch here or visit his website https://www.sebastiancox.co.uk/