TELL NO LIES: ZEITRAUM

Authenticity and sustainability can be read in the very grain of ZEITRAUM’s timeless, solid-wood-furniture collection.

Sustainability, it’s fair to say, has proved itself to be, well, sustainable. But long before it became the issue de nos jours, long before it became fashionable (for want of a better word), there were design manufacturers pursuing the sustainability agenda.

The Munich-based furniture producer ZEITRAUM is such a company, which, in this age of marketing hyperbole and superficial nodding to environmental and social responsibility, has a refreshingly honest take on what it does and how it does it – ever since it was founded almost 30 years ago. Google the company and you'll find an emphatically literal description of its stock-in-trade in your results: 'ZEITRAUM: High-quality furniture in solid wood'.

You see, authenticity runs right through the brand, from its honesty to materials – hand-selected, FSC-certified, deciduous hardwoods such as oak, walnut, cherry and maple – to the way they are treated. Multiple rounds of careful sanding are married with meticulous oiling and waxing. Think of it as a spa experience for timber or, perhaps more appropriately, a mark of respect for the gift that nature has given us – these amazing organisms that, after they’ve been felled, continue to live on in our material landscape, supporting our own lives and well-being. Nature 2.0, if you will.

But back to fashion. Or, rather, the eschewal of it. ZEITRAUM has always been about the harmonious rather than the shouty. The designs, pared down to the irreducible elements of current interior style, exhibit a pure simplicity, making them long-time companions rather than short affairs. Collaborations with reputable designers, meanwhile, add a twist on their timelessness.

And therein lies real sustainability. It doesn’t matter how materially sensitive you are as a producer, how eco-minded your production processes are or how recyclable your products. If you’re in the business of manufacturing stuff that attempts to pursue the vagaries of fashion, that’s going to become aesthetically obsolete, then you can’t call it sustainable.

For ZEITRAUM, sustainability has always been second nature.