Compact and Curvaceous – The Pa Collection for nau by Timothy Robertson at Cult

Since its inception, Cult’s in-house Australian design brand, nau, has forged a reputation for working with some of the country’s brightest design talent, with the likes of Adam Goodrum, Tom Fereday, Kate Stokes and Adam Cornish all contributing timeless designs to the nau collection. Now there is another name to add to the list: Timothy Robertson, whose seating range, Pa, was unveiled in June at Design Show Australia in Melbourne and is now available to pre-order from Cult.

Timothy’s capsule collection of four pieces – a lounge chair, dining chair, dining armchair and counter stool – are compact and curvaceous, with an elegant frame and supportive dual-radius back. “I really wanted to create a compact lounge chair that was visually calm, comfortable, safe, honest and that felt like a big warm hug,” he explains. “The timber has such a lovely soft velvety feel about it – Pa is all about tactility, stimulating the senses.”

Sculpted into the sleek concave form of the backrest, the timber forms an integral component of the design, its natural wood grain creating an organic counterpoint to the powder coated or stainless steel frame.

The use of timber is noteworthy, marking the first time nau has included native Australian timbers in its collection; Tasmanian blackwood, Victorian mountain ash and silky oak feature, used alongside other standard nau finishes. Sculpted into the sleek concave form of the backrest, the timber forms an integral component of the design, its natural wood grain creating an organic counterpoint to the powder coated or stainless steel frame.

The natural materiality also has a personal significance for Timothy, who spent much of his childhood in his furniture-maker father’s Perth workshop, watching him craft new designs using local timbers. Indeed, Timothy acknowledges the Pa collection was deeply inspired by his father – even the name pays homage to his parent’s ongoing support and guidance. “We tossed around many names but ultimately it’s not only the experience of the warm hug you feel in the chair [it’s] the many years of wisdom, skills and techniques my father taught me, which are embodied in this range and which I use in my daily work,” the designer says.

With their slender and open frames, the designs have an airiness that lends them equally to use in residential and commercial contexts, a versatility that is inherent in the nau range as a whole.

With their slender and open frames, the designs have an airiness that lends them equally to use in residential and commercial contexts – a versatility that is inherent in the nau range as a whole. Pa represents a considerable coup for both Timothy and Cult. It cements the retailer’s position at the forefront of international design talent while for the designer, the chance to partner with a prestigious luxury brand just six months after winning Australia’s Next Top Designer at Design Show Australia in October 2022 was an unexpected highlight in a short career. The collaboration, Timothy says, came about after a chance meeting in Copenhagen in June 2022. “I later showed the Cult team the Pa lounge I had been working on and they shared with me their ideas and vision for the range,” he recalls. “The design naturally flourished between Cult and I – we had a mutual understanding of what we were after. It was a beautiful process watching the range be realised in a remarkably short amount of time.”