How sustainable wood furniture maker in Hong Kong turns fallen trees into unique pieces

At the inaugural exhibition of the Tzu Chi Environmental Action Centre in Hong Kong’s Tai Wai neighbourhood in 2021, one particular installation stood out: a school of more than 100 suspended sharks made from wood that had been entirely salvaged. It was an effective and subtle way to convey the message from its creator, Lam Che, that trees and sea creatures share space with those who use and discard them with little thought. Lam, who is in his mid-60s, began salvaging fallen trees and construction waste in 2003, repurposing them in his Kwun Tong studio. He predominantly collects fallen camphor trees and old Thai teak that was once popular in colonial home furnishings. As Hong Kong enters its typhoon season, Lam is about to get busy again. Fallen trees are packed with moisture and require two to three years to dry out enough to sculpt into art and furniture pieces. Lam makes mostly stools and tabletop accessories such as radio and jewellery cabinets. “Hong Kong trees tend to be gnarly and are generally not big enough for large pieces,” he explains. He points to one cabinet with vintage textured glass insets. “I was out one evening with my wife and daughter when I saw this glass, so I told them to go ahead and eat while I stayed behind,” he says, relishing the memory of dumpster diving before dinner. Lam acknowledges that most people find his work expensive, though he rarely crafts bespoke orders. “I don’t want to make something and find out afterwards it’s not what the customer wants – and may not want to even pay for. “I prefer they buy what they can see and touch. It takes me two days to make a stool out of a stump. The price has to reflect the time I put into it. “Some people don’t get that it is truly one-of-a-kind. Everything is made by hand and no two are the same.” Hong Kong born and bred, Lam admits that his poor grades at school were the main reason he apprenticed as a carpenter with a furniture company at the age of 14. “It was the 1970s,” he says. “I had no choice but to learn a trade. I liked to draw. When I was in grade one, I drew a chicken and felt happy when my teacher praised it.” At first, Lam did little more than sand timber, sweep floors and clean toilets while watching master carpenters work whenever he could snatch some spare time. Over the course of a decade, he took on more responsibilities until he was entrusted to craft wood primarily from Malaysia and Thailand into tailor-made furnishings for architectural projects. The furniture he and his colleagues made was installed in offices and homes newly built or being renovated by architects and interior designers. Around this time, he began to repair dilapidated Chinese furnishings that were making their way into Hong Kong collections as mainland China opened up in the 1980s. “When I first started visiting renovated sites to help install the furniture I made or repaired, I saw most spaces were completely gutted and everything inside trashed,” he says. “I knew it was unsustainable to keep going down this road. Timber flooring, particularly, was too beautiful to be tossed into landfill. The trees we use have been alive for years – some longer than our own time on earth. It’s not right to bin them because we’re bored with how they look.” Today, his biggest challenge is finding space within his 1,100-square-foot (102-square-metre) studio to store his treasures. If he runs out of room, he says he will stop collecting until a corner is clear again. “I don’t store anything off-site. Rent in Hong Kong is very expensive and it’s inconvenient for me to move things from place to place after I find them,” he says. To make ends meet, Lam recently started helping install projects around town. In 2023, he worked with Made – a Hong Kong-based furniture maker that uses sustainable wood – and artist Sim Shum on Island Log, a wooden pavilion on the island of Yim Tin Tsai that formed part of the Sai Kung Hoi Arts Festival. In May, he installed a ceramics wall in a Tuen Mun public housing estate. Lam continues to participate in exhibitions, while his sculpted tree at Fairly Goods in Lok Fu Place – an ongoing display – encourages children to read the second-hand books available there. The tree provides a welcome canopy above stools of varying sizes to distract kids while parents shop for upcycled products. “Friends run the shop and I helped them create a children’s nook,” Lam says. Lately, Lam began sharing his skills with budding woodworkers through the Hong Kong Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre, at the Sam Tung Uk Museum in Tsuen Wan. “I just finished teaching a set of full-day classes in May,” he says. “The classes are small and limited to four students. That way, I give every student the attention they need to understand the tools they use, to unlock the story within every piece of timber.” Lam says no day is the same for him, with different projects requiring different approaches. But despite the intensive work and long hours, he cannot imagine ever retiring. “What would I do with myself? I can’t always be on holiday. If I can keep doing this until I’m 80 or 90, I will.”

How sustainable wood furniture maker in Hong Kong turns fallen trees into unique pieces

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong furniture maker Lam Che salvages fallen trees and construction waste to make one-of-a-kind pieces and art installations

Hong Kong furniture maker Lam Che salvages fallen trees and construction waste to make one-of-a-kind pieces and art installations