Lightweight craft meets precision engineering: Levity Collection takes top Production Award
- PWT
- Dec 2
- 2 min read
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 2025 Wood Awards.
Blending lightweight elegance with engineering ingenuity, the Levity Collection marks the launch of Meon, a new indoor furniture brand. Crafted from British-grown ash, the collection demonstrates how traditional craft skills and advanced technology can come together to create furniture that is both beautiful and highly functional.
The manufacturing process combines time-honoured techniques such as steam-bending with contemporary approaches including CNC precision cutting. This process maximises ash’s natural strength and flexibility, resulting in furniture that's lightweight, structurally robust and designed to stand the test of time.
Each piece balances refined aesthetics with exceptional structural integrity. In the armchair, a single piece of steam-bent ash forms both the arms and backrest, while a contoured seat provides comfort. A stacking version of the armchair allows four chairs to be stored compactly when space is limited.
The tables – available in three sizes – are engineered for clean lines, a durable frame and impressive stability. Bespoke fixtures allow the legs to be detached for transportation, while the design’s simplicity allows the timber’s characterful grain 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° 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 & Objects judges – a panel of world-leading professionals – viewed all shortlisted pieces in person before selecting the winners, making this one of the UK’s most rigorous design competitions.
Led by designer-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 the Design Museum; and Henry Tadros, Chairman at Ercol.
Other category winners included:
A Forest Datum by Hooke Park Architectural Association – Bespoke Award
The Growth Project by Darren Appiagyei and Red Knot by Laura Welsh – co-winners, Sculpted Object
Her Captain’s Chair by Lily Hitchcock Design – Student Award
This year’s winning timber building was Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum by Feilden Fowles.
To find out more about all the 2025 Wood Award winners, visit www.woodawards.com. Photos © Gaze Burvill
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