Douglas Powell — 'Memory' Chair, 2025

Some chairs become part of design history. Others become part of our own.

We remember the chair in a childhood home, a favourite seat at the family table, or the place someone always chose to sit. Over time, objects become intertwined with people and experiences until it becomes difficult to think of one without the other.

Constructed from aluminium round bar, Memory brings together the precision of machines and the intuition of the hand. Its engravings are CNC-machined, while the legs are bent by feel. Texture is built through countless strikes from small pins, before a patina is applied to the surface. Each process leaves its own trace, reflecting the way memories accumulate and change over time.

The moon-faced backrest draws on cycles of change and return, suggesting that memory is never fixed. It fades, resurfaces and gathers new meaning as we revisit it.

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Douglas Powell is a Welsh-born designer-maker who grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe and is now based in Fremantle, Western Australia.

His early fascination with tools, materials and the farm workshop led him to study product design in the UK, where he developed a particular interest in metal fabrication. He later became a certified metal fabricator, working across structural and architectural steelwork before establishing Duzi Objects in 2023.

Working across furniture, sculpture and functional objects, Powell brings together his background in design and fabrication with an ongoing curiosity for new materials and processes. His work is characterised by expressive forms, considered craftsmanship and a willingness to experiment, bringing his own personality to familiar objects.