Celebrating the beauty of homegrown hardwoods, the Levity Collection of chairs and tables, designed by Katie Walker for Meon by Gaze Burvill, has won the top prize in the Production category at the Wood Award 2025.
Blending lightweight elegance with engineering ingenuity, the Levity Collection marks the launch of new indoor furniture brand, Meon. Crafted from British-grown ash, the collection demonstrates how traditional crafts skills and advanced technology can work together to create furniture that is both beautiful and functional.
The manufacturing process combines time-honoured skills, such as steam bending, with cutting-edge techniques including CNC precision cutting. This approach takes advantage of ash’s natural strength and flexibility, resulting in furniture that is lightweight, structurally robust and designed to stand the test of time.
Each piece combines structural integrity with refined aesthetics. In the armchair, a single piece of steam-bent ash forms the arms and backrest of the chair, while the contoured seat provides exceptional comfort. A stacking version of the armchair allows four to be neatly stored when space is tight.
The tables, available in three sizes, are engineered for clean lines, a robust frame and remarkable stability. Bespoke fixtures allow the legs to be detached for transportation, while the pleasing simplicity of the design allows the characterful grain of the timber to take centre-stage.
“With a well-resolved, production-ready design that strikes a balance between elegance and simplicity, these chairs are a joy to sit on: generously wide, supportive in the back, and subtly embracing, offering real comfort,” commented Sebastian Cox, lead judge of the Furniture & Object panel.
“Built to last for generations, the chair is highly suited to efficient production. A key 90-degree angle anchors the form, while the shaping and complexity have been cleverly concentrated into a single component at the back. This focused approach allows for moments of refinement while keeping production costs efficient.”
The Wood Awards furniture and objects judges, a team of world-leading professionals, viewed in-person all shortlisted pieces before deciding the winners, in one of the UK’s most rigorous assessments for any competition.
Led by designer and maker Sebastian Cox RDI, the panel includes Caroline Till, co-founder of FranklinTill; Hugo Macdonald, critic and curator; Sophie Sellu, founder of Grain & Knot; Johanna Agerman Ross, Conran Foundation Chief Curator at Design Museum; and Henry Tadros, Chairman at Ercol.
Among the furniture and object pieces which won in other categories was A Forest Datum by Hooke Park Architectural Association, which won the Bespoke award; The Growth Project by Darren Appiagyei and Red Knot by Laura Welsh, who co-won the Sculpted Object category; and Her Captain’s Chair by Lily Hitchcock Design, who won the Student prize.
At the 2025 Wood Awards this year’s best timber building was announced as Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum by Feilden Fowles.
You can find out more information about all of the 2025 Wood Award winners by visiting www.woodawards.com.
