Studio: Mast

People | Georgia Birks

21 Dec 2023

In Brisbane, this studio is proving that high-quality furniture can be produced and manufactured in Australia to a standard rivalling that of Scandinavia.

Joinery becomes art in Kurunpa Kunpu. Shown here is the intricately detailed Manta Pilti credenza by Trent Jansen and Tanya Singer.

Image: Fiona Susanto

In the 11 years since the company was established, Mast has become a leader in Australian-made furniture, collaborating with industrial designers including Adam Cornish and Tom Fereday, as well as architects such as Vokes and Peters and John Ellway.

Mast has evolved from its humble beginnings as a passion project, and founder Rory Morgan and his wife Kati have been joined by Christian Hakansson and Chris Nicholson as business partners. Combining curiosity with self-taught craftsmanship and contemporary technology, the Mast team is demonstrating that high-quality furniture production is viable here in Australia. “We are [producing and manufacturing] things that typically come out of high-end furniture manufacturers in Denmark or Japan,” says Rory.

The Mast team (L–R): Rory and Kati Morgan, Christian Hakansson, Chris Nicholson and Adrian Gjedsted.

The Torii chair is one example. Its timber backrest is steamed and moulded into its curved form – a process that is rare in Australia today. “There are people doing [steaming] in more of a craft sense, but no one really doing it in a furniture production sense,” Rory says.

Timber has always been Mast’s focus, with the Title range kickstarting their expertise. In recent years, woodworking has become their speciality. Kurunpa Kunpu, a collaborative project by designer Trent Jansen and Tanya Singer (Minyma Anangu) and Errol Evans (Djabugay and Western Yalanji), highly skilled punu artists who live and work in Indulkana, South Australia, exemplifies this. Three years in the making and taking three months to produce, the collection of intricately detailed furniture includes the Manta Pilti Credenza, whose multifaceted, concaved timber edges construct an object that is more functional art than joinery.

The Beam Armchair combines timber craftsmanship with upholstered comfort.

Whether making highly intricate custom-made timber furniture or refining a piece for commercial production, the Mast team enjoys the process of experi-mentation and dialogue that occurs through collaboration. “We can be fixed in the parameters of what we know as woodworkers, and so when we work with [external designers], they … bring [new ideas] to the table that we, as woodworkers, wouldn’t even think to explore … It always brings the design to a completely new place,” says Rory. Their latest collaboration with Adam Cornish – the Stem chair – combines an elegant curved steel post, reminiscent of a flower stem, with Mast’s familiar timber craftsmanship.

For the future, Mast is keen to keep the company small to continue to have control over their pursuits into high-quality Australian furniture. Mast’s projects demon-strate that high-end furniture can be designed, produced and manufactured in Australia to a standard rivalling that of Scandinavia.