Reimagining a Festive Icon

INTERVIEWED BY Steve Smith PHOTOS Supplied

How do you design a Christmas tree that’s innovative, timeless and promotes circularity? Who better to ask than Heath Nash, who brought the Radisson RED’s vision for a modular, reimagined festive icon to life.

Heath Nash, Head of Sustainability and Make Space at Wunders, and a celebrated South African creative, has built a career on transforming waste into works of art. His latest project — a striking, modular Christmas tree crafted for the Radisson RED at the V&A Waterfront — exemplifies his ethos of innovative, sustainable design, and the power of collaboration. This bespoke installation not only brings festive cheer but also highlights Heath’s commitment to thoughtful design and circularity. VISI editor-in-chief Steve Smith had a chat with Heath to find out more about how he tackled the project.

✖ Can you tell us a bit about how the project came about?

The process was a long and exciting one, which started some years ago when they wanted a tree made from upcycled material by Our Workshop in Langa which I founded. At that time, there wasn’t a budget available for the project.

But this year Dayle Theunissen head of marketing at the Radisson RED approached me again about the project.

✖ What was the brief for the design?

The brief was to design a tree that could be dismantled and stored efficiently and be re-used over the next years. For me, this meant using a sturdy and long-lasting material — steel. More precisely, in the end, we went with powder-coated laser-cut steel.

✖ What inspired the overall look and feel of the tree?

I immediately knew, based on the other decor elements in the hotel lobby that it needed to be a contemporary African tree. Minimalist and clean but maximalist at the same time (with the lighting playing a big role here) — something with real immediate visual impact similar to their existing decor.

✖ How did you approach the design? What is the vision for longevity?

I wanted to create a ‘light’ feeling structure which was always intended to visually reference delicate paper cutouts, whilst also being strong enough to last for years to come. This is a very circular approach to design — a modular system that can be re-used for years and even throughout its longer lifetime perhaps lend itself to being ‘decorated’ or adorned by different artists each year — in 2025 and onwards. I imagined an illustrator like Michael Chandler doing it in his signature blue and white style or Lucie De Moyencourt in her beautiful illustrative style. Or, renowned graffiti artist MakOne doing a version in future where he uses his spray cans and allows the tree to be re-imagined through his lens.

✖ What inspired the intricate cutout designs?

My inspiration for the cutouts was a direct and meaningful reference to the work of iconic African designer Chieck Diallo in his work with welded steel rods in many of his chair and table designs.

✖ Any challenges in fabricating the design?

I initially wanted to make it in a similar technique to Cheick’s work, but hand-bending and welding such a large and intricate sculpture was way over the budget allocated. This meant we had to go with a more mechanical fabrication method — laser cutting and machine bending.

✖ Can you talk us through the design process?

This whole process (process is everything to me as a designer, along with materiality and the most important thing perhaps — a strong kernel of conceptual thought) began humbly with a sketch on a whiteboard at Dennes Engineering, where their excellent drafting rendered my concept and design direction in Solidworks which can ‘unfold’ three dimensional CAD designs.

This drawing was then sent to Top Cut Engineering to precision cut the 1.6mm steel sheets into flat components, and thereafter these modular parts were precision bent, sent to powder coating and delivered to site at the V&A Waterfront.

What followed was an epic full-day assembly, using bolts to connect 30 parts into 6 double rings which were then connected into one large sculptural piece using more bolts and cable ties.

✖ Who was involved in the assembly?

The job was done with my trusty Wunders team Mpilo Headman and Loyiso Lloyd both of whom are from Our Workshop in Langa and are now employed with me as part of a brand new department at Wunders called Make Space by Heath Nash, where we are sorting and categorising production ‘waste’ from the factory with the results being exciting projects around the idea of ‘waste’ and new products hitting the market in 2025. | heathnash.com

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