Public Art Commissions
Reception Desk and Gallery Furniture by Angus Ross

In 1998 Angus Ross was chosen from a shortlist of six furniture makers to design and make the reception desk and furniture for the new art gallery and museum. This furniture is elegant, highly functional, and reflects the Art Gallery's former use as a swimming pool.

Angus Ross studied industrial design at Edinburgh University and worked as an industrial designer in the pharmaceutical and childcare industry until 1991 when he took an intensive course in cabinet making at Rycotewood College in Thame. Since then he has run his own studio workshop in the Chiltern Hills and now in Perthshire designing and making innovative high quality furniture for private and corporate clients.

Angus's furniture creates a sense of the rhythm and flow of water. The slumped glass panels on the front of the reception desk give the impression of light on water whilst the sweeping shape of the desk and the seating invite the visitors into the gallery as well as reflecting the waves, lifebuoys and shapes found in this former swimming pool.

Angus first produced a series of drawings and models to show Gallery staff what the furniture would look like. Once the final designs had been agreed Angus ordered the wood and made a full sized plan, called a rod, for each piece of furniture.

The panels for the carcass of the Reception Desk were cut to size from the rod. Templates and moulds were made and the front and back curved panels were laminated together in a vacuum press. The panels were biscuit jointed and assembled. Holes for the security screens, cabling etc... were cut out, doors prepared, hinged and locked. Once the complete carcass were fitted together they were checked and then painted.

Reception Desk by Angus Ross. Photograph by Benedict Campbell.

Angus chose the most attractively marked oak boards for the work top. Radially shaped, the boards were edged, biscuit jointed, glued and clamped in sections. Once set, the sizes were checked and the work tops were shaped to the exact curve of the desk.

The loop was assembled in tapered flat sections, to get the curve exactly right, and when together shaped both inside and out, with hand and power tools to a smooth, uniform curve.

When complete all sections of the work top were tried, fitted and tried again and then finally assembled. The tops were then finish sanded, oiled with two coats of linseed oil before finishing with wire wool and four coats of pure tung oil over a three week period.

Oak drawers were made for the unit and as a finishing touch aluminium ring pulls were cast and filled with coloured resin, picking up the life buoy theme, and mounted on all drawers and doors.

The glass front was made by Jeff Bell of Jeff Bell Casts in London. He used a mould of the exact outer curves of the reception desk to cut, laminate and slump the glass. This recreated the rhythm and flow of water in a swimming pool. Because of the time restraints the desk had to be delivered and installed on site before the glass was finished so templates were made on site and from these the glass panels were cut to fit the desk front. Two days before the Art Gallery opened to the public, the glass was delivered and it fitted! 

The tables and benches all shared a common design feature - 'stack laminated' curved planes of wood, which were built up from a series of shaped components to create a wooden 'wall'. The tops were cut and shaped following a template and the knots filled with coloured resin to solidify and seal them. Both sections were then sanded and oiled and bolted together. The legs being spaced with polished aluminium spacers. Finally the bolt holes in the top were plugged, planed flat and the whole bench given three final coats of oil. To increase the stability of the bench, two cast and polished aluminium legs were added, threaded into inserts under the seat.

Seating by Angus Ross.  Photograph by Benedict Campbell.

Angus Ross: www.angusross.co.uk

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