New Veneer

The cooperation of the design-group bkm with RoHol, a company in Upper Austria producing veneer panels, has an interesting history. Both bkm and RoHol, when experimenting with veneer panels, are influenced by the economics of design. Various methods have been developed to change veneer surfaces.  The economic idea of design advocated by bkm aims at transforming the craft of ornamentation into a repeatable industrial method. To reach this goal, a production mistake, despised of in craftsmanship, is used as an approach to design. The method opens the path for various possibilities. The results are numerous veneer patterns all different from each other. Comparable with "mass customization" industry can produce unique pieces of work. The dimension of sustainability in the project "New Veneer" can be understood as essentially based on changing the context and ornamentation so as shaping becoming minor for the design.

bkm designs neutral cubes to not impair the impact of the experimental panels of veneer. The cubes are different types of storing furniture: as  mnemonic tools they store thoughts and enable associations, and as receptacles they separate private life from public life. The goal of "New Veneer" is not to conceive pieces of art conspicuously labeled as results of design, but to show how design processes can use resources and implicit knowledge.

The objects were created for the exhibition "NEW VENEER" in the Gallery Artmark during Vienna Design Week 2009.

Designer
Bruckner, Litzka, Moritsch, 2009

Manufacturer
RoHol, Rosenauer Holzverarbeitungsges.m.b.H.