Oliver Thygesen on Rooted.
A coffee table that traces Matek back to its ancestry: wood itself.
Oliver Thygesen is a Copenhagen-based maker, master carpenter and joiner, and the founder of CPH Wood. His practice is grounded in traditional Danish woodcraft but shaped by a contemporary architectural sensibility, treating wood as a structural and atmospheric material rather than a decorative surface. His work has been connected to projects including the Sparresholm Estate restoration with Dinesen.
For Project Materia 2026 he contributes Rooted - a coffee table that traces Matek back to one of its own primary ingredients: wood.
In the artist's words
The "Rooted" coffee table by the emerging designer Oliver Thygesen is a tribute to the tactile world and the quiet intelligence of natural materials. Through this piece, he reflects on the resources of our planet and the stories they carry.
While Matek's boards are innovative in expression, they are deeply rooted in nature - formed from reclaimed and natural materials. In this work, Oliver draws attention to Matek's ancestry: wood itself. Through a living narrative, he reveals the transformation of timber - from discarded wood shavings to a beautifully marbled Matek surface.
The table's base becomes more than structure; it is a metaphor for growth and belonging. It reaches outward in search of nourishment, meaning and stability, until it finally finds its footing - and takes root.
The piece
Medium: Matek™ (wood shavings + e-waste), Douglas Fir · Dimensions: Ø60 × H35,5 cm
Rooted brings a working carpenter's hand into a field more often shaped by gallery and studio practice. The piece sits inside Project Materia's 2026 cohort as a quiet argument for craft tradition as something active rather than nostalgic.
