After two decades of success, sock and apparel company SmartWool is rebranding the company. According to a statement released in December, the Colorado-based brand is embracing its essential values and looking to a future of high-octane adventure with the reimagination of its visual identity, including a colorful update to its iconic cowboy logo. SmartWool’s new packaging is slated to hit stores in late June, and a website reskin is planned for the same month.
The SmartWool® brand is driven to push the boundaries of Merino wool to build smarter products. Inspired by those who live and play in the mountains, the brand offers high-performance apparel made for an active outdoor life.
The wood is carefully charred, misted with water, cooled, brushed to remove dust and loose debris, and then stained/sealed to create the unique designs you will find in the CHARRED collection. The top coat sealer is applied prior to shipping (for exterior applications, we recommend sealing the face & back).
CCS Architecture worked closely with Nancy and Tim Cushman to create O Ya New York. The design brings the ambiance and character of their Oya – Boston to Midtown. Located on the ground floor of a cherished townhouse within the Park South Hotel, the design is a mix of carefully orchestrated old and new.
Exposed brick and concrete are contrasted with crafted Japanese carpentry, glazed kiln tile, steel, and fabric. The main element is the expansive eating counter made from walnut timber. The façade and entry identify the establishment and also defines a transition from urban NYC; where you step down from the street, traverse a micro-Japanese garden of bamboo, gravel, and a large iconic granite boulder brought to the site direct from the quarry, and then enter the restaurant under a steel and wood canopy. The entry way features reSAWN’s TORA shou sugi ban charred cypress is select grade.
This private residence in Sonoma County features SNOW 6″ wide oak flooring customized with a matte polyurethane finish as specified by Nick Noyes Architecture.
In the heart of Sonoma Valley, the charming village of Glen Ellen is steeped in a blend of Sonoma County wines, local dining delights, and the valley’s natural beauties.
Operating out of a converted warehouse in the Dogpatch/Potrero district of San Francisco, Nick Noyes Architecture has found a prominent place in the architectural community of the Bay Region and beyond.
Founded in 1992 this nationally and internationally published and award-winning firm concentrates on new residential construction and residential renovations. The firm is noted for consistently producing work that is both rich in formal clarity and expressive of the material nature of construction.
On all projects particular attention is paid to client satisfaction, an appropriate response to site and context and the inclusion of environmentally sensitive and sustainable methods.
SNOWfrom reSAWN’s BARK SIDE collection features a textured surface on original cut white oak. For the Glen Ellen residence, we created a custom version of SNOW using a matte polyurethane finish on 6″ wide whit eoak. ORIGINAL CUT is a way of cutting the log that incorporates plain sawn, rift sawn and quarter sawn grain patterns and all grades and character marks into the final product.
YOGASMOGA open in Malibu Country Mart. This shopping destination features unique and upscale boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, and personal services set in an astoundingly beautiful atmosphere. The store design incorporates reSAWN’s MEDITATION rift & quarter sawn white oak prefinished with hardwax oil and customized in a character grade.
YOGASMOGA® is a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company that upholds the tenets of yoga through responsible and authentic business practices that inspire deep, direct and lasting connections with customers. Founded in 2013 by siblings Rishi and Tapasya Bali, the company is headquartered in New York City with significant production and retail operations in California and Massachusetts. YOGASMOGA crafts its products from innovative proprietary fabrics developed in its research and development facilities in California. As an expression of its ethos, YOGASMOGA uses only unretouched photography and manufactures its products domestically in the USA. YOGASMOGA created the NAMASKAR FOUNDATION to benefit health and education and facilitate micro-lending for residents of remote Himalayan villages.
Wearing your YOGASMOGAs while basking in the sun is the best way to experience this sunny beach city.
COS, an upscale European retailer under the H&M (Hennes and Mauritz) brand, recently expanded into the Canadian retail market. G architects collaborated with New York-based Office AO to bring to life the brand’s 3-story, 6,700 sf flagship location in Toronto’s fashionable Yorkville neighborhood. The modern façade is clad in reSAWN’s MONOGATARI shou sugi ban charred wood. Inside the store is light and airy, reflecting the same sparse Scandinavian aesthetic found in the menswear, womenswear and kidswear sold at the store.
Office AO Architecture is an architecture and design firm located in New York City with extensive experience in commercial and retail architecture across the United States. OAO bring an intensive eye for detail to every project and provides creative solutions for the unique design problems posed by any project.
G is an architecture practice based in downtown Toronto offering high-quality professional services in a lean and efficient environment. G believes the primary role of an architect is to represent the clients’ best interests throughout their design and construction project. They work to ensure that their clients’ priorities and goals are always at the forefront of all design decisions.
The ancient technique of shou sugi ban is gaining new life as a unique and modern interior and exterior wall cladding. The wood is carefully charred, misted with water, cooled, brushed to remove dust and loose debris, and then stained/sealed to create the unique designs you will find in the CHARRED collection. The top coat sealer is applied prior to shipping (for exterior applications, we recommend sealing the face & back).
EWEN embodies the organic union of considered design and heritage building techniques. Defined by its distinctive facade, the alliance of steel and reSAWN’s shou sugi ban charred wood paneling, Ewen’s expansive loft views frame the Williamsburg neighborhood it calls home.
A home is not made. It is born of its environs, reflecting and embracing the past as much as the future. Weaving a rich architectural heritage, time-honored craft, and informed by how we live today, Ewen stands as a marker.
Situated on Manhattan Avenue near Powers Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Ewen represents a collection of 10 exceptional residences which provide a unique interpretation on classic theme. Until about 1886, Manhattan Avenue, or rather the route it would eventually follow, was known as Ewen Street (for 19th Century city surveyor Daniel Ewen). The building façade is carefully composed relationship of sustainably sourced – Japanese inspired shou sugi ban charred wood cladding from reSAWN TIMBER co., a reclaimed cypress wood canopy, steel, and glass. The homes include a mix of 2 and 3 bedroom residences, duplex townhomes with private street-level parking and landscaped gardens, and detailed penthouses with innovative building systems, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, landscaped terraces and a rooftop lounge. In addition, residences feature direct elevator access, open kitchens and modern custom baths.
EWEN features reSAWN’s MOYASU and TAIYO charred cypress – more project install photos coming soon.
Fast Company and the WSJ announced recently that in New York and Portland, two high-rise buildings will be made not from concrete or metal, but a throwback material: good old trees.
From Fast Company:
It seems as if New York City is always under construction. Every few blocks, steel frames and concrete beams are formed and stacked high in the air. Now a new 10-story building in Manhattan is planned that will be unlike any other in the U.S: It will be made almost entirely from wood.
Wood is an old building material that has been getting a new life in taller buildings over the last five years. Around the world, 17 wood buildings have been built that are between seven and 15 stories tall—many of them in Europe. A record-high 35-story wood building is in the planning stages in Paris. But the U.S. has been slow to start exploring the recent advancements in wood materials that have made these taller buildings possible. None exist here today.
Last year, in partnership with the lumber industry, the Department of Agriculture announced a $3 million prize intended to spur tall wood building designs in the U.S.. Today, it announced two winners that will split the money: The 10-story residential condo, slated for Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, and a 12-story retail, office, and apartment building in Portland, Oregon.
In the interest of creating rural jobs, the Agriculture Department has a stake in promoting wood, as does the lumber industry—which has struggled since the housing crisis. But there can also be major sustainability benefits to wood as a building material.
“As cities are growing, they’re using a tremendous amount of concrete and steel, and the problem with that is that concrete and steel have a very big carbon footprint,” says Vishaan Chakrabarti, a principal at SHoP Architects, which designed the New York City project.
In manufacturing and construction, wood generally has a lower carbon footprint than other common building materials. In addition, the wood itself stores extra carbon (at least in the U.S., where logging regulations are strict and trees are farmed, not deforested). Diseased wood from western U.S. forests afflicted by pests such as mountain pine beetle can even be used in newer advanced wood products. Normally, this dead wood adds to the fire risk when left in place.
Building taller and larger structures with wood has only become possible in recent years, as the industry has created denser, engineered wood products that are more flexible, stronger, and more fire resistant than the traditional two-by-four beam. But current U.S. building codes generally allow wood buildings to be only six stories or less, and regulators and designers are naturally wary of trying new methods. The goal of the competition is to demonstrate it can be done.
“If you think about traveling through New York City and seeing buildings being made from steel and concrete, and all of the sudden in the middle of all this, you see this new wood constructed building—it’s going to catch your attention. I think it’s going to create some real interest,” says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
The stylish, upscale, 10-story Forte apartment complex, near the water’s edge in Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour, was built in 2012 with cross laminated timber (CLT), whose structural strength is akin to that of concrete and steel
The Wood Innovation Design Centre (WIDC) serves as a gathering place for researchers, academics, design professionals and others interested in generating ideas for innovative uses of wood.
The Wood Innovation and Design Centre in downtown Prince George features inventive use of wood solutions to solve every-day design and construction challenges
The nine-storey building is the first of this height to construct load bearing walls and floor slabs as well as stair and lift cores entirely from timber.
66 Summer Street is a residential high-rise in the heart of Stamford, CT featuring reSAWN’s wide plank oak flooring. This engineered floor has a substantial 6mm wear layer and is 7″ wide to accentuate the unique character and grain pattern of white oak. The flooring was finished with a custom stain designed specifically for this project. Trinity Financial is the team behind the 15 story development, part of Stamford’s Park Square West redevelopment initiative.
With a unit mix of 112 one-bedrooms, 12 one-bedrooms with den, 68 two-bedrooms, 12 studios and five two-level townhomes, the new residential high-rise boasts solid construction quality with a concrete and steel frame building and exceptional amenities.The development offers breathtaking park, city and water views with spacious layouts.Only the highest quality materials were used – not only to ensure a building with integrity, but also to provide a quiet, more energy-efficient environment for residents.
Each floor alternates between light and dark interiors designed by SLADE architecture in NYC including reSAWN’s wide plank oak flooring.Residents can enjoy exclusive access to community amenity spaces including the Velocity fitness center, Solstice three season roof-deck, library lounge, club room and yoga studio.
from The Architect’s Newspaper … a unique shou sugi ban project in Basel, Switzerland by Seattle architects Olson Kundig
“Olson Kundig combines an ancient Japanese wood-burning technique with 21st-century interaction design at Design Miami/Basel Collectors’ Lounge.”
KEVIN SCOTT
Regional building styles and construction techniques weave a complex history that reflects the qualities, cultures, and narratives of a particular place. Olson Kundig took this to another level when designing Outpost Basel, an architectural pavilion at the Design Miami/Basel Collectors’ Lounge in Basel, Switzerland. The wood construction legacies of several places came together to create a bespoke structure that embodies the global design culture in which we operate.
The architects hail from Seattle, in the heart of the Pacific Northwest’s timber country. They brought their innovative mastery of materials to Western Europe, where companies like the Austrian goliath Holzindustrie Schweighofer are pushing wood technologies forward in new ways. The two worked together in Romania to construct the pavilion out of a wood-block system that is typically used as formwork for concrete and then discarded afterwards. Instead of using the wood bricks to create forms, the architects decided to give them a rich black hue by charring them with a traditional Japanese wood-burning preservation technique, completing the international mélange that makes the project unique.
In the center of the lounge is a large box made from the wood blocks provided by Schweighofer. The designers liked the raw look of the wood blocks, so they left them unfinished. The system is a series of wooden parts that are doweled together, “like IKEA furniture, avoiding screws,” Olson Kundig principal Tom Kundig told AN. The light walls were quickly and easily constructed to form the interior volume, and a series of openings were inserted by shifting the blocks according to the Fibonacci sequence. Once the walls were erected, they were charred using “Shou Sugi Ban,” an ancient technique that has been used in Japan to protect untreated wood against rot and insects. It was also an important way to fireproof villages before modernity. The process involves charring the wood and then using different oils to achieve different effects, while changing the intensity and exposure of the torch to produce varying levels of charring. At first, Schweighofer—who has been a leader in the wood processing industry for more than four centuries—was skeptical of the unusual idea, but eventually executed it at their Romanian compound, treating the blocks before they were shipped to Basel. They used a torch to apply the burn to the surface, and after two coats of torch, they put a sealing oil on the surface which sets the finish and reduces the risk of the black soot rubbing off (on people’s clothes in Basel). The inside of the space was left raw, so that it maintained the warmth of the wood blocks, while the burnt black exterior relates to the rest of the space in which the pavilion sits.
“FOR THE OUTPOST BASEL PAVILION, OLSON KUNDIG INTEGRATED SEVERAL WOOD CONSTRUCTION LEGACIES, FROM A WOODBLOCK SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED WITH AN AUSTRIAN COMPANY IN ROMANIA TO THE ANCIENT JAPANESE PROCESS KNOWN AS SHOU SUGI BAN.”
reSAWN applies the Japanese charring technique of shou sugi ban to cypress, black walnut, red oak, or reclaimed hemlock, then finishes the woods with colorful oil for an even more striking aesthetic. Recently, the manufacturer added 18 new colors to this line ranging from neutrals to heavily saturated hues such as pink and cyan. All but two of the new colors are suitable for both interior and exterior cladding in commercial and residential settings. Different levels of black finish are also offered and result in dramatic backdrops.
KURO shou sugi ban exterior and interior wood siding
After two decades of success, sock and apparel company SmartWool is rebranding the company. According to a statement released in December, the Colorado-based brand is embracing its essential values and looking to a future of high-octane adventure with the reimagination of its visual identity, including a colorful update to its iconic cowboy logo. SmartWool’s new packaging is slated to hit stores in late June, and a website reskin is planned for the same month.
