Full Grown (Gavin Munro)

Two men outdoors shaping the growing branches of a young tree into a chair-like frame. — Chris Webb, courtesy of Full Grown

Full Grown, founded by Gavin Munro, grows furniture directly from living trees using a guiding frame over several years, a process where material, tool, and manufacturing almost merge into one.

An even more exceptional case that radically dissolves this boundary is the work of Gavin Munro, founder of Full Grown. He doesn't just source wood as a supply; he cultivates furniture directly from living trees. In his process, the material (the growing tree) and the primary tool (a specially designed plastic frame that guides its growth) are engaged in a multi-year symbiotic process where the tree itself becomes the factory. Here, the final Outcome is grown, not constructed, with conventional finishing tools only used at the very end of the process for final details. This approach represents an ultimate fusion where the distinction between material, tool, and manufacturing process almost entirely disappears, illustrating a profound partnership with natural processes at the Frontier.