888 SOUTH OLIVE

Luxury Parking Garage Facade

Elevated parking garages do not to be ugly. This was the concept behind Ombrae’s stunning corner-wrapping design for Onni Group’s luxury residential tower LEVEL, in downtown Los Angeles. Commissioned to create custom original artwork, a series of triangular elements were perspective warped to appear as a flattened graphic from a specific vantage point across the street. Additionally, these triangular elements were biased in various directions, to ensure a visually dynamic surface when viewed from all directions. This optimization strategy proved useful for blocking unwanted views into the parking garage, with Ombrae’s added benefit of allowing sufficient natural ventilation as a cladding solution. Our client was so pleased with the visual results at podium level, they expanded the original scope to include mechanical screening on the crown level. This considered Ombrae application helped position LEVEL DTLA as a truly artful blend between luxury apartment and botique hotel. This project is a great example of Ombrae’s uinque environmental colour-mixing characteristics.

DESIGN OPPORTUNITY

Anamorphic Artwork

Given the prominent corner site conditions of the screen, the geometric artwork was designed in such a way that standing directly across the street on the opposite corner, the design would appear as flat. Areas of the graphic on the extreme ends, down the block in either direction, actually have elongated and enlarged triangles that appear undistorted from the key vantage point across the street.

Skema

Decastelli

REIGN RESTAURANT

A new fusion restaurant in the financial center of Dubai, with a blend of European and Arabic architecture, featuring a gigantic double-curved WOOD—SKIN wall. The multi-toned wood finish pops off the all-white furniture and exposed concrete.

Opposite the restaurant, a 50 m long counter is clad in shiny black laminate to reflect lights from outside, enhancing its clean and organic movement.

IUTER FLAGSHIP STORE

Along one of the most alternative streets of shopping in the fashion city – Milan – a new kind of shop take place. This happens when a high end design material meets a street-wear brand, looking for a fresh&cool aesthetic for the first shop they open in their hometown.

IUTER Flagship Store in Milan | WOOD-SKIN – Tailor Made Geode
IUTER Flagship Store in Milan | WOOD-SKIN – Tailor Made Geode
IUTER Flagship Store in Milan | WOOD-SKIN – Tailor Made Geode

4300 WILSON

DESIGN : Gensler

PRODUCT : Tailor Made Wave

MATERIAL : Birch plywood

FINISH : Veneer

Even before crossing the threshold of the main entrance of 4300 Wilson, you are greeted by an exceptional feat of architectural design by Gensler, who has created a canopy that guides you into the building using WOOD-SKIN Tailor Made technology. The aluminum exterior with a faux wooden texture is designed to withstand all weather conditions, while the interior, a complex and sinuous three-dimensional surface in veneered birch, sprawls out into the space of the lobby to become first a ceiling, then a wall, in an uninterrupted curvilinear flow, enveloping the visitor in a wave of wood where an integrated bench offers a comfortable place to rest. WOOD-SKIN then continues its journey inside the building to the elevator area and then the fitness facility.

This installation perfectly represents the potential of WOOD-SKIN technology and Tailor Made applications. In addition to the supply of the wooden cladding, WOOD-SKIN worked side-by-side with Gensler on the computational engineering of the surface, from the concept to the on-site installation done by Washington Woodworking.

Not just a treat for the eyes, but a complex acoustic surface designed down to the millimeter to seamlessly integrate lighting fixtures and furnishing elements such as the built-in upholstered bench.

SHORT INTERVIEW TO STEPHEN RAMOS, DESIGN DIRECTOR OF GENSLER

In your opinion, which are the strengths of this project?

4300 Wilson serves as an exemplary model of a repositioning. It helps to redefine the Ballston market through a unique amenity experience, enticing both visitors and future tenants into a completely novel workplace journey.

How was your experience in working with the WOOD-SKIN team?

The whole creative and collaborative working process with WOOD-SKIN was amazing. It felt like WOOD-SKIN became an extended part of our design team and partnered with us to develop and maximize the impact of this stunning feature in the space.

What do you think WOOD-SKIN brought to your project?

WOOD-SKIN provided us with a highly flexible system that allowed us to create a defining design element that moves through the space and leads our occupants in precisely the journey our client wished to emphasize in the space.

POST OFFICE FACADE

“A meeting point for people, colours, flavours, and lives where good food meets design”. This is how PosOfficeStation, a new multifunctional hub on the east side of Milan has been described by the press. 

The design has been curated by Alessandro Bombaci with very fluid and extensive use of the WOOD—SKIN surfaces, different shapes and materials always in continuous dialogue with the urban heritage of the area and its possible present-future.

This project widens W—S’s possibilities by bringing the technology on the outside among the elite of materials suitable for facade use. The chosen material is a tough aluminium composite paired with the ultra-flexible W—S® technology. 

The inside of the cafè is in continuity with the organic shapes of the exterior, the free-form tessellated shape is achieved by the creative use of Tailor Made Cloth surfaces in a variety of finishes. The brushed metal finish of the suspended ceiling and the glossy black laminate of the counter help create a dynamic effect that brings the visitor to a new vibrant and cosy space. 

Decastelli

Project 1-duplicate-3

CERSAIE 2018

Tremendous public success for the De Castelli company at the recent Cersaie. Many guests visited the stand to see the latest products exhibited: new surfaces made of exclusive materials and precious finishes, the result of the company’s experimentation. The audience at the Cersaie has welcomed the new products of the De Castelli company – based in Treviso and renowned globally for having transformed metal processing by combining craftsmanship, technology and design.Many guests appreciated the new ideas, differing in character and specificity. Yoko, designed by Leonardo Sonnoli, a shabby black metal surface system with copper or brass graphic inserts – a tribute to randomness as method to compose increasingly customised and original solutions; the DecoDe project, comprising sound-absorbing hexagon modules, combining aesthetic and function, developed by De Castelli in partnership with the architect Pino Scaglione, and Circle Wall, the spectacular wall made of overlapped round brass elements with different levels of oxidation, by De Castelli R&D. Inside, other surfaces developed in partnership with Paola Lenti – Tela, an oxidized copper metal fabric, and Glow, an iron and aluminium iridescent coating – and the door created in partnership with Linvisibile, coated with the special Marea watercolour finish. De Castelli chose to tell its story by exhibiting also some of its furnishing collections, to represent the brand know-how. To complete the exhibit, the Terraplus floor in raw earth by Matteo Brioni, who collaborated with De Castelli also for the Fuga project by Studio Irvine, exhibited in the Wall&Decor stand nearby.