Canadian designer Thom Fougere has created a series of commemorative tables for the G7 political summit in Alberta, Canada, using a stone unique to the region and commonly used on its civic buildings.

Fougere, an independent designer who was creative director for Canadian brand EQ3 for a decade, designed two display tables and a side table/vase for the political conference at Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Kananaskis.

Fougere was brought on to design the tables for the fireside chats area of the lodge by Manitoba-based 1×1 Architecture, which directed the overall design.

Thom Fougere designed stone furniture for the G7 Summit

The designer worked with Gillis Quarry to locate the stone pieces and stated that it took almost a month to find stones large enough for the job.

The tables were made out of massive slabs of off-white Tyndall stone, a veiny stone mined in the province of Manitoba, with each table weighing 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms).

The side table, which contains a central hole for planting that was decorated with an arrangement of Saskatoon Berry flowers, was placed between world leaders as they utilised the fireside chats area.

Fougere designed a side table incorporating a vase

His pieces, along with a collection of wooden furniture designed by Canadian studio Patkau Architects, were the only pieces created exclusively for the conference.

The designer said the tables were a great way to showcase the talent and materials in Canada in a time of political strain between the North American nations. The recent tension was sparked by  proposed tariffs on Canadian goods in the United States, a move that is likely to also affect materials in the design and architecture industries, as well as comments made by US president Donald Trump about Canada becoming the “51st US state”.

“We’re more proud than ever”

“It really unified Canada, the tensions, and I think we’re more proud than ever,” said Fougere, who emphasised the exoticness of the stone and the subtlety of the pieces.

“It’s little things like this that show we have special things within our country as well, and maybe we’ve taken them for granted.”

According to 1×1 Architecture, the “current international political climate” affected the design of the remote lodge.

“‘Fireside moments’ were employed in order to help promote community, meaningful conversation and unity through shared experiences,” it said.

1×1 Architecture selected Canadian design for the primary conference room

The primary conference room had windows looking over the Rocky Mountains, with 1×1 Architecture placing high, rough-sawn spruce timbers in front of the window to extend the room and to reference “Canada’s forestry stewardship”.

The spruce trees were taken from stock culled in a firebreak initiative in Alberta.

The primary room – called the Outreach room – featured a long Teknion table and Keilhauer chairs under an inverted ceiling to create an intimate scale for the world leaders.

The studio added metallic finishes to reference the Olympic Village for the 1988 Calgary Olympics ballroom alongside the parliamentary Tyndall Stone, and pieces by other Canadian furniture manufacturers such as Camantra, Mobius Objects, Indigo Arrows, Nienkamper and Bensen.

“The overall material selection provides a stable foundation for discussions between nations and provides a sense of formality and structure for an event with such international significance,” said 1×1 Architecture.

“I didn’t take the task lightly.”

Fougere added that it was an honour to produce the pieces, which will be moved to a government building in Ottawa after the event, which ran from Sunday to Tuesday.

“I wanted to produce something beautiful, original, and imbued with Canada in some way, and I didn’t take the task lightly.”

Fougere’s use of Tyndall Stone fit in with the overall references to Canadian architecture

Design’s role in political conferences has a long and understated history. It reportedly took weeks for the American and Vietnamese negotiators to decide on a table design to host the Paris Peace Accords between the two nations in 1973.

Also in design relating to politics, Dezeen recently put together everything you need to know about Egypt’s new purpose-built capital city.

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