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“The architectural structures that are the
most interesting to me are always the ones
that have some sort of magical quality about
them: they stand without legs or they float
in the air, thousands of tonnes of concrete
reduced to a skinny shell.” Inspired by the
architecture of the Cathedral of St. Mary
of the Assumption in San Francisco designed
by Pietro Belluschi and Pier-Luigi Nervi,
Matthew Hilton designed Mary’s Chair and
Mary’s Side Table. Moved by the contrast
of the oppressive weight of the cathedral’s
concrete structure and the release of
the expansive space within, Hilton aimed
to capture this paradox of weight and
weightlessness.
“McQueen came from a desire to make something
that is strong, simple, straightforward,
kind of pragmatic I suppose, but has
something interesting about it. Quiet but
interesting. I wanted to do something
that is calm and sophisticated but not
in a polished way, more…rough, heavy. And
I want things to be very practical. The
Welles Table, the Orson Desk, all those
things come from the McQueen, from that
cast leg.”
The qualities he appreciates in products
around him also inform his work: “Whenever
I think about buying something, I look
at the whole thing. The things that tell
me that this is an object that has been
thought about carefully, those things
just keep impressing me. I invest a lot
of time in that and I want that to pay
off. I think it is very important that if
someone invests in a product, whether just
the time investment made to choose it, or
a financial investment, or both, then it
must perform well. It must endure. It must
not disappoint.” Hilton takes this very
seriously: his design process includes the
careful consideration of every view of a
product, every detail, to allow the end
user a sense of appreciation over time as
new details are discovered.
Matthew Hilton enjoys pushing the boundaries
of solid wood, and in this endeavour has
found an able partner in De La Espada. A deep
understanding of wood and a long history
of working with it allows us to experiment
thoughtfully and skilfully, striving to reach
new limits of possibility. The perennial
problem-solver,
Matthew
Hilton
applies
expertise gained over 30 years specialising
in furniture to realise his unique creative
vision. Each collaborator raises the game
of the other, for furniture that is well-
considered, cleverly engineered, sculptural,
and destined to become part of the family.
Different Trains cabinet was named after
Steve Reich’s contemporary composition of
the same name, the sliding movement of the
doors recalling the fluctuation of sounds.
