American Hardwood Export Council IMEA

30/12/2025

See Vert While You Can — A Showcase of Sustainable Design

AHEC presents Vert, a sustainable timber pavilion by Diez Office and OMCºC, designed to cool cities and support urban biodiversity. Built from red oak glulam and thermally modified timber, Vert highlights the structural performance, durability, and environmental value of this underused American hardwood.

Red oak makes up 18% of North American hardwood forests, yet remains overlooked in Europe. Increasing its use can ease pressure on other species while offering designers a strong, renewable, and climate-positive material. With responsible forestry helping U.S. hardwood forests double in standing volume over the past 50 years, Vert shows how timber innovation can support climate resilience in our cities.

As a part of WEtransFORM exhibition, Vert can be seen at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany until 25 January 2026.

25/12/2025

In a time when environmental headlines often feel heavy, Forested Future offers something rare: hope.

AHEC’s new documentary, directed by Petr Krejčí, takes viewers deep into the Appalachian hardwood forests of the eastern United States—places where people still live, work, and care for the land in ways that honour natural cycles and long-term stewardship.

Inspired by Fred Pearce’s book A Trillion Trees, the film reminds us that humans have lived in harmony with forests for thousands of years. As Pearce says,
“It’s only in the last couple of centuries that we forgot how.”

Through the eyes of foresters, farmers, artisans, ecologists, and timber workers, Forested Future shows that regenerative practices are not abstract ideals—they are lived realities. These communities think in tree time, not short-term cycles, nurturing landscapes that grow more wood than they harvest and ensuring thriving forests for generations ahead.

As Nancy Baker, a forest landowner in the film, puts it:
“The forest thinks in centuries.”

By reconnecting with this rhythm, we can rebuild our relationship with the natural world, meet our material needs responsibly, and rediscover wood as a renewable resource that can support both people and planet.

Forested Future has already screened at Ji.hlava IDFF, BARQ Barcelona, and premiered in the UK at the ICA. The film is available in multiple languages, making its message globally accessible.

Here’s to a future rooted in regeneration, community, and the enduring wisdom of the forest. 🌲✨

23/12/2025

Sourcing American Hardwoods: Know Your Material 🌲✨

American hardwoods offer an incredible range of colours, grains, strengths, and stories—but choosing the right species starts with understanding the details.

Here’s what matters when sourcing:
🌱 Properties — Every species behaves differently.
🎨 Colour changes — Cherry darkens, walnut lightens, grain varies naturally.
🗺️ Regional differences — Climate and terrain shape the wood.
🌳 Variances — Sapwood, heartwood, and subspecies all influence appearance.
📏 Size & grade limits — Trees and sawmills determine what’s possible.
🤝 Partner wisely — Your supplier is your best guide.

American hardwoods offer endless design potential—when they’re chosen with knowledge and care.

18/12/2025

Honouring Craft, Material, and Legacy

From his workshop in western North Carolina, Brian Brace creates fine furniture built to last for generations. Trained through an 8,000-hour apprenticeship in Vermont and now a Roycroft Master Artisan, Brian’s work blends traditional joinery, contemporary design, and a deep respect for material.

His pieces—most notably the Arbor Morris Chair—are constructed with mortise-and-tenon joints, hand-finished surfaces, and signed maker’s marks that speak to authenticity and longevity. Brian works almost exclusively with local American hardwoods, often from fallen or aging trees, valuing their tight growth rings and natural stability. For him, each board carries a story worth preserving.

Brian’s approach to craft and responsible material sourcing is also featured in AHEC’s documentary Forested Future, premiering this November, highlighting communities dedicated to sustainable forest stewardship.

Today, from his studio in Black Mountain, Brian continues to build furniture that honours its maker, its material, and the forest it comes from—work meant to be used, cared for, and passed down.

16/12/2025

Architect-turned-designer Lucie Reuter brings together modular thinking, craft, and material intelligence in her London-based practice. For London Design Festival 2025, she introduced Designed for Reassembly—a bolt-free, CNC-machined self-assembly furniture system that reconsiders how flat-pack furniture can be made, used, and maintained.

Inspired by the dovetail joint, the pieces assemble and disassemble quickly without tools, allowing owners to rebuild and move their furniture repeatedly. With no glued joints or threaded inserts, each component can be fully separated at end-of-life, supporting responsible recycling and reducing waste. The compact form also lowers packaging and transport emissions compared with conventional glued furniture.

Reuter selected hard maple for its fine grain, warm tone, and reliable machining—ideal for precision joinery—and ash for its strength and even staining qualities, adding subtle tonal variation. Fasteners in recycled aluminium reinforce the project’s circular ethos, pairing renewable hardwoods with endlessly recyclable metal.

The collection demonstrates that thoughtful design can be adaptable, repairable, and enduring—built to be taken apart, rebuilt, and kept in use for the long term.

11/12/2025

Exploring Three American Hardwoods in the AHEC × Phantom Hands “Re-editions” Project
The Re-editions project pushed our team to work with three American hardwood species—each with distinct material qualities that shaped both the design logic and the making process.
🌳 American Red Oak (Quercus species, primarily Q. rubra)
Warm, grainy, tough and exceptionally bendable.
As the most abundant U.S. hardwood, red oak pairs strength with a striking coarse grain and warm reddish-pink tones. Its porosity makes it ideal for steam bending and staining, opening new design possibilities in the workshop.
🍒 American Cherry (Prunus serotina)
Rich, smooth, vibrant and flexible.
With a fast rotation and a color range that deepens over time, cherry has long been favored in fine furniture. Its workability and warmth make it a compelling material as it enters a new phase of renewed appreciation.
🍁 American Maple (Acer saccharum, A. nigrum, A. rubrum)
Light, fine, hard and naturally luminous.
Used here in both hard and soft varieties, American maple offers a pale, refined surface and excellent hardness—ideal for precise detailing and clean architectural expression.
Each of these species brought its own learning curve, and together they expanded how the Phantom Hands team engages with unfamiliar timber. Their inclusion in the Re-editions project reflects a broader commitment to material exploration, sustainable sourcing, and evolving craft traditions.
For details: https://www.americanhardwood.org/en/examples/our-projects/re-editions/material

For over 25 years the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has been at the forefront of international wood promotion, successfully building a distinctive and creative brand for U.S. hardwoods. AHEC’s global programme of activities secures a future for

09/12/2025

✨ In 2024, AHEC’s collaboration with Phantom Hands evolved into an intensive exploration of American hardwoods—materials unfamiliar to PH’s teak-based practice. With AHEC’s technical guidance and insights from architect–woodworker Adam Markowitz, the team experimented with new techniques such as layered wood bending, leading to the introduction of cherry and red oak into PH’s catalogue.
Architect David Joe Thomas then developed a modular pavilion for Design Mumbai, built with minimal waste and engineered for reuse. Nearly 30 PH carpenters worked for seven weeks to bring it to life.
The pavilion became both a laboratory and a showcase—revealing how PH’s design process and relationship with wood continue to evolve.

05/12/2025

Thrilled to unveil 'Re-editions,' a beautiful new collaboration between AHEC and Bangalore-based Phantom Hands, showcased at Design Mumbai in November.
The collection features eight timeless furniture pieces—including designs by Geoffrey Bawa, INODA+SVEJE, x+l, and Adam Markowitz—all crafted in sustainable American Red Oak and American Cherry.
This collaboration highlights how these temperate American hardwoods integrate seamlessly into high-end design, proving to be an ethical and aesthetic successor to traditionally used tropical woods. Phantom Hands' stunning pavilion, made from American Hard Maple, also reflects their historical connection to Chandigarh's modernism.
📸 Phantom Hands

02/12/2025

🌳 AHEC successfully wrapped up its participation at Algeria Woodtech 2025!
We had fantastic engagement demonstrating the strong regional demand for sustainable American Hardwoods.
A huge thank you to everyone who visited our booth to meet with Technical Consultant Neil Summers. Neil provided invaluable, in-depth advice on lumber grading, kiln drying, and the technical applications of American hardwood species for furniture and architectural projects.
The engagement at Algeria Woodtech 2025 served to strengthen AHEC's regional network and confirmed a robust interest that lays a positive foundation for continued trade expansion into the next year.

27/11/2025

🪵 What is Glue Laminated Timber (Glulam)?

Glulam is one of the most innovative and sustainable materials in modern construction — combining strength, versatility, and beauty.

🌍 A bit of history:
The first Glulam beams were made in Europe in the 1890s, with patents issued in the early 1900s — marking the start of commercial laminated timber construction. Today, as architects and designers embrace sustainable building materials, Glulam is experiencing a powerful resurgence.

⚙️ How it’s made:
Glulam is formed by bonding layers of planed timber under heat and pressure. Smaller pieces are finger-jointed and glued to create beams capable of spanning greater distances — often outperforming concrete and steel. With CNC precision technology, Glulam can now be shaped into complex, expressive forms while maintaining exceptional structural integrity.

🌳 The role of American hardwoods:
While most Glulam structures use softwood, hardwood Glulam offers unique advantages — higher strength, smaller beam dimensions, and a warmer, more aesthetic finish.
American hardwoods, such as red oak and white oak, can deliver twice the strength of softwood beams, opening new possibilities for both structure and design.

Though less common due to limited data and higher costs, hardwood Glulam represents an exciting niche for projects demanding strength, beauty, and sustainability.

25/11/2025

🎯 A Legitimate Career: The Story of Ted Synnott

Choosing a creative path often means facing uncertainty — both your own and others’. For New Zealand designer Ted Synnott, that uncertainty became the fuel driving his journey from self-doubt to international success.

After starting a marketing degree, Ted soon realised his true passion lay in making. An internship at luxury menswear brand Dadelszen — and exposure to Cheshire Architects — ignited his creative curiosity. Yet, being told he had “good ideas but no hard skills” was a turning point.

Following shoulder surgeries and a newfound confidence after shaping his first surfboard, he took a leap of faith — enrolling in a year-long woodworking course at The Centre for Fine Woodworking in Nelson. There, he discovered his hands-on potential.

From a small farm workshop, Ted began crafting his own designs, including the first version of his Volume Table — a concept later embraced by Audo Copenhagen. His persistence paid off when his work, crafted in American white oak, caught attention at Greenhouse, Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023.

Today, Ted’s designs are sold internationally, a testament to how creativity, craftsmanship, and resilience can build a legitimate career.

“Progress in this industry can be slow; you need to be patient. But if you want it enough and push through the self-doubt, you can control your own destiny.”

20/11/2025

The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) presents Vert — a sustainable engineered timber structure designed to cool cities and increase biodiversity in urban environments.

Created by Diez Office in collaboration with OMCºC, Vert showcases the potential of two versatile American hardwood products: red oak glulam and thermally modified timber (TMT). The result is a calm, shaded space inviting visitors to reconnect with nature in the heart of the city.

🌿 🌿 🌿 https://www.americanhardwood.org/en/examples/our-projects/vert