Nature’s building blocks
The trend is towards wood. It is sustainable, warm, flexible, and suitable for innovative concepts - and not just in living spaces.
Little known is the fact that with 185,000 businesses, more than 1.3 million employees and a turnover of EUR 181 billion, the forest and timber industry is one of Germany's most successful industrial sectors. Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund is acknowledging this fact by organising Wood Life from January 18 to 21, 2007.Despite showing great interest, consumers remain uncertain, explains Andreas Schulte, professor at the International Institute for Forest Ecosystem Management and Timber Utilization North-Rhine/Westphalia, the institution backing this exhibition for the general public. "People often ask: is there actually enough wood in Germany?" The truth is that Germany boasts the largest wood stocks in Europe, twice as much as Finland or Poland. More than enough to meet demand. Working closely with the central association of the German woodworking, plastics and allied industries (HDH), he has recognised the enormous economic and labour-market potential of the sectors that work in the timber and forestry industry - in North-Rhine/Westphalia alone.Wood has a multitude of uses. It can also be used to advantage in trade fair and exhibition applications. "Not only is wood ecological, it is a good building material", Johannes Milla, managing director of Milla und Partner, Stuttgart, points out. "A beam only takes a fraction of the energy to produce that is required for a steel girder. And it is no less robust either."Milla speaks from experience. His agency designed the pavilion of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection for the International Garden Show 2003 in Rostock and the Federal Garden Show 2005 in Munich. The exhibition entitled "Biovision" sought to make the advantages of sustainable use of plants into an experience. The exhibition was made all the more convincing by the sustainability requirement on the building and implementation. A series of six wooden panels subdivided the building and at the same time acted as the supporting walls. They were made of large-surface solid wood elements. Wood supplied by the domestic wood industry was used. All in all, a total of 140 t of wood was used in the pavilion. According to Milla’s calculations, that is about as much as grows in all Germany's forests every two minutes. "During its ‘lifetime’; the wooden structure filtered a total of around 260 t of carbon dioxide out of the air. The fact that the structure was exhibited at two large garden shows for five months each, proves that multiple use for long periods is not a problem. And, when the time comes, disposing of re-used parts has no environmental impact."The new Messe Friedrichshafen venue which was completed in June 2002 (design and concept by von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Hamburg), makes more than temporary use of wood: Impressive wood ceiling structures convey a warm and friendly atmosphere. The wooden barrel arch vaults span the 60 m wide halls without columns. The trade fair location was awarded the Land of Baden-Württemberg's prize for wooden building for its efforts in 2003. The building demonstrates, the judges concluded, that large projects can be built out of wood and still be a success in both economic and design terms.Given this many advantages, the current investment in the further development of processing methods and products for interior fixtures comes as no surprise. Wood, after all, is an extremely flexible material. "It can be compressed. Pressed solid wood by Prugger or veneer edging made by Richter Furniertechnik can be bent in tight radii without breaking", explains Eberhard Kappler, managing director and the "ek" in spek Design, Stuttgart. "There are new ways of disguising veneer. A special fine fleece material that is applied to the back prevents the material from breaking when it is bent. ‘Flexed' veneer can then also be used for complex shapes, such as mobile phone holders."The designer duo Eberhard Kappler and Patrick Sauter and their team presented their products last autumn during a series of exhibitions called Ein()sichten at the Stuttgart Design Center. The "Showroom spek Design" showed original products, architect's models of exhibition stands and much more. Visitors experienced a very special kind of interior ambience produced by two totally new products made of extremely thin disguised wood veneer.These wood technology products saw their world premiere at "Piazza Wood and Veneer Innovations" at Interzum 2005 in Cologne where they caused a sensation. Around 120 veneer lamps moved through the air in such guises as "floating wood trunks" and, on closer inspection, the large-surface wall panels turned out to be veneer curtains that hung delicately like lengths of material. The veneer curtain was suspended from metal rings attached to adjustable eyes that ran in tracks. Due to their flat packaging, low weight and quick assembly the lamps and veneer curtains are suitable as fixtures for trade fair, event and exhibition design.Koelnmesse also commissioned spek Design to present versatile applications in the area of innovative material developments, for example, disguised veneer or the new wood panel MFP made by wodego, extrudable window frames made of wood or honeycomb boards for lightweight construction, for which Häfele has developed special fittings.The design agency had already used large amounts of wood two years previously for the jubilee celebrations "40 years truck factory Wörth" staged by DaimlerChrysler AG, where wooden pallets were used as monumental wall building blocks. A festive ambience was created within the pallets using lighting effects thus making the link to the client's industrial background. Transparent yet solid, they provided interesting event architecture that matched the proportions of the exhibited lorries. (The project was a co-operation between Event Design, Stuttgart, and Megaforce Veranstaltungstechnik, Weingarten.)The Danzer trade fair stand in Shanghai took the form of a sculpture. For the international market leader in veneer and sawn timber, spek Design developed a variable modular stand for their client's global trade fair appearance. The products sawn timber and veneers were staged as samples that could be taken and held but were also perceived as part of the architecture. The products therefore formed an intrinsic part of the stand. This was done with a forest of leaves made of veneer samples that hung down and floated in front of the wall in organic movement. The magnetically fixed veneer samples can be touched, moved, and removed like the leaves on a tree. Cut wood samples lined the meeting and utility rooms. Behind all this is a simple Octanorm system stand, suitable for frequent assembly and dismantling (exhibition contractor: Messebau Keck, Weil der Stadt).
m+a report Nr.1 / 2006 vom 13.02.2006
m+a report vom 13. Februar 2006