Subin Seol and Retrouvius Breathe New Life into Power Station Timber.
When Korean artist and designer, Subin Seol, attended a talk by Adam, co-owner of Retrouvius, something resonated deeply. From the lecture theatre at the Royal College of Art where she was studying for her Masters in Interior Design, a discussion about architectural salvage, forgotten materials and the creative potential in reuse, lingered in her mind. A few weeks later, she visited the Retrouvius showroom – and everything clicked.
In a quiet corner of the warehouse, she found what others had overlooked: lengths of teak handrail, salvaged from the now-decommissioned Fawley Power Station in Hampshire. Worn, weighty and rich with history, the wood had proved tricky to repurpose. But where others saw limitation, Seol saw potential.
So began The Remembrance Chair – a limited-edition collaboration between Seol and Retrouvius that invites us to think differently about reuse, memory and material.
The Fawley Power Station, once a landmark of British brutalist architecture and a functional powerhouse for the South Coast, was as much a piece of cultural history as it was infrastructure. In its later years, it also became a cult filming location. When the building was dismantled, Adam from Retrouvius stepped in to preserve what he could – replacing elements like the teak handrails before they were lost to landfill or obscurity.
The site of the Power Station when it was being demolished
Rescued handrails from the Power Station and below, being shaped into the chair’s design
Crafting The Remembrance Chair from this timber required patience, sensitivity and skill. Seol approached the material not as a blank slate but as something alive – with a past to honour. Each chair is shaped by hand, retaining subtle signs of its former function and time-honoured patina. No two pieces are exactly alike.
“To me, salvaged materials are a way to honour the time and history of a place or an object” says Seol. “I see the potential in what others consider waste, and aim to transform it into something beautiful and functional” says Seol.
The result is a chair that speaks quietly but profoundly – a sculptural reminder of where it came from – and what design can be when rooted in memory.
From 15-19 September 2025, The Remembrance Chair will be on display and available for purchase at the Retrouvius showroom during London’s Design Festival 2025. With only 16 in the edition, individually labelled and materially distinct, the collection invites reflection – on history, on waste, on what we choose to preserve and leaves us with a provocation: surely we can be doing more.
You can find out more about Subin’s process and the making of the chair in this fascinating video: Remembrance.
