Tout le cochon

Farm to table. Forest to architecture. How can designers and architects embrace hyper-local materials?

Today, every possible ingredient is available at the supermarket—often “not great ingredients in large abundance.” Just as modern restaurants prioritize convenience over quality, architecture relies heavily on imported, standardized materials. Nowhere is this more evident than in timber, where excessive processing strips away its natural character and generates significant waste.

At the Melbourne School of Design, we have developed Urban Arborist—a model for sourcing and utilizing urban timbers through collaboration with arborists, designers, and fabricators. This approach transforms locally harvested trees into low-carbon construction materials, celebrating timber in its raw, non-standard form.

Tout le Cochon—French for “the whole pig”—reflects this ethos. The exhibition showcases a kitchen pass designed and fabricated from a single Sugar Gum (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) harvested in Melbourne. By preserving the tree’s natural curvature, knots, and imperfections, the project highlights the beauty of working with the whole tree rather than forcing it into standard forms.

Hosted at Arnold’s, a wine bar and restaurant run by Kensington locals Scott Eddington and Lauren Chibert, the exhibition is over a late Sunday with canape and grazing, celebrating great ingredients through thoughtful gestures.

Through this exhibition, we invite designers and makers to rethink their approach to materials, embracing a more intentional and sustainable way of building.