As a rule, there are not many opportunities for a city-dweller to sit on a real tree trunk. Even someone living near a forest would not necessarily be able to do so without cutting down a tree. However, things might be about to change, with three different designers recently making furniture incorporating tree trunks.

Wood Drop 14 by Jacob Marks, owner of Skram, a design company based in North Carolina, US, is a stool made from a chunk of timber, still with its original cracks and flaws (www.fordandching.com). Trunks, the creation of the Polish design company Malafor, appeared at the London Design Festival this month. This chair is formed from a solid piece of oak cut crosswise and wrapped in steel with either a shiny metallic or brightly painted surface. (www.containgallery.com). Finally, the Treetrunk bench, designed by Jurgen Bey for Vivid of Rotterdam (www.vividvormgeving.nl), comprises bronze chair-backs implanted into a tree trunk.

The three designs all make an aesthetic statement but there’s a practical aspect to it as well – using timber that would otherwise be discarded and reducing the amount of energy spent in processing it.