Fort Standard’s Gregory Buntain References Barrel-Making for a New Seating Collection
“Chairs have always been a passion of mine.” So states Gregory Buntain, founder of design-build studio Fort Standard. “They are such expressive objects.” Take his Cooperage line. The armchair and stool as well as table nod to the cooper’s age-old trade of barrel-making, contrasting white oak with oak that’s been torrefied, a process of roasting the wood until it darkens. Similarly referential is Tombstone, a chair he originally designed in 2013 as an experiment in minimal seating—consisting of just three simple planes—that’s now officially in production, available in multiple stones, white oak, or various domestic hardwoods.
