Organic Furniture

Wright's Rosenbaum House in Florence AlabamaModernist architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) coined the term "organic architecture" to describe his buildings' literal relationship to their natural surroundings, as well as the way the buildings' design
—thought of from the inside out, the same way a seed germinates and grows into a larger organism in its environment. Wright's best example of organic architecture is, of course, Fallingwater, a house built in 1935 over a water fall in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. Although Fallingwater is a long way from northwestern Alabama, where wood artist Robin Wade grew up, Wright had an influence on Wade's future aesthetic. In fact, Wright's Rosenbaum House, completed in 1940 in Florence, Alabama—the same town in which Wade was raised and just a few miles from Wade's Slow Studio—has influenced Wade's view of art and architecture throughout his life.
Just as Wright's organic architecture emulates nature, Wade's organic furniture pieces capture the tremendous beauty and flowing form of the trunks and branches from which they are crafted. Using local trees, sustainably harvested within a 60-mile radius of Wade's Slow Studio, and a quiet, harmonious design aesthetic, Wade crafts functional art—tables, benches, desks, and chairs—that retains the natural shape, texture, grain, and color of the species. "I haven't yet found a better artist than nature," Wade says.