designer outdoor furniture
one studio per collection

Tribù keeps no in-house design studio. Each collection goes to an outside designer, and the name stays on the drawing. This guide reads two results: Nagomi and Branch.

Designer outdoor furniture can mean a famous name on a tag. At Tribù it means a working rule. The Belgian house, founded in 1966 and run by the de Cock family, keeps no in-house studio: an outside designer draws each collection and the workshop builds it. The rule dates from Praslin, the first collection, which Lode de Cock launched with designer Wim Segers in 1992.

Read the designer in the shape

A good designer piece tells you who drew it from across a garden. You see it in one decision the designer held on to: a fork in a leg, a curve in a back, a weave left open. Ten studios drew the 21 collections in the current Tribù catalog, from Studio Segers and Monica Armani to Yabu Pushelberg and Christophe Delcourt, and each one leaves a different mark. The designers page lists them all.

Nagomi by Inoda+Sveje

Inoda+Sveje built Nagomi around a cast aluminum frame light enough to shift with one hand. The name comes from the Japanese idea of harmony, and the lines follow it: flowing and quiet, with the weave as the only ornament. Handwoven Canax covers the back and seat. Air moves through it, so the seat stays cooler than a solid metal panel in afternoon sun, and rain drains away. See the Nagomi collection.

The designers paired frame and weave by color. Linen aluminum goes with a linen weave, and dark bronze aluminum goes with a copper-toned one. Linen disappears against pale stone and stucco. Dark bronze holds its own against dark decking and heavy planting.

Five pieces run from dining to lounging: an armchair, a bench, a dining table, a lounge chair and a lounger. The table takes a teak or a ceramic top, with a 320 by 100 cm version for long gatherings and a 130 cm bench alongside. You order the lounger on wheels, on stackable legs or on fixed legs, depending on how often it moves.

Branch by Lievore Altherr Molina

Lievore Altherr Molina took the way a tree divides and used it for the legs. Each leg in Branch forks before it reaches the ground. The frames are thin powder-coated tube, and the fork is the only detail on them. From across a garden you see a few drawn lines with a seat between them. See the Branch collection.

Craftsmen weave the seat and back by hand in flat cord. The back stays open, in a grid wide enough to see the planting through. The seat closes up tighter, since it takes the load. The side chair and armchair stack, so a set stores flat in a garage corner between seasons.

Care follows the material

Designer furniture still has to live outside. Nagomi asks for little: rinse the weave and let it dry in place, hose off pollen, and oil a teak top twice a year or wipe a ceramic one with soap and water. Branch wants a fresh-water rinse on the frames at intervals of a few weeks near the ocean, because the powder coat is its weather layer. The cord takes soap, water and a soft brush.

Choose by the terrace, then by the name

Set the name aside at first and pick by the job. Nagomi suits a rooftop where furniture moves for each gathering, and a dining space that doubles as a lounge. Branch suits a balcony or a city terrace where chairs stack away in winter. Then look at the drawing and ask yourself if you want to live with that one idea for years.

Tell us which designer caught your eye and where the furniture will stand, through the form below. We answer with pieces from that collection, its finishes and itemized costs. Tribù builds to order, and the lead time comes with the quote.