Transmaterial » finishes

Woven Stone

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:00:29 +0000

Woven Stone is part of the ASI Specialty Products Magna Mosaic Collection. Earth tones combined with dimensional, geometric features create a powerful and sculptured look, lending an artistic element to any space. The continuous, controlled texture of Woven Stone creates a sense of movement, suitable for the most modern of interiors, including retail, hospitality, healthcare and corporate projects.

Contact: Architectural Systems, Inc., New York, NY, USA.
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Coco Tiles

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:34 +0000

Made from reclaimed coconut shells, low-VOC resins and sustainably-harvested wood backer material, Kirei Coco Tiles may be used as decorative tiles or panels both horizontally and vertically. Featuring multiple pattern and color combinations and available in light, dark and mixed textures, the coconut shell tiles create a variety of surfaces and enhance the sustainable material palette in residential, commercial, and hospitality applications.

Contact: Kirei, Solana Beach, CA, USA.
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Textures

Blaine Brownell — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:00:47 +0000

R-Cast Textures acrylic material weighs half as much as glass but is 17 times stronger. It is also four times stronger than concrete. Textures are acrylic panels that feature customized patterns sculpted deep into the surface. Without any special illumination, the panels reflect available ambient lighting to produce deep and dramatic shadows. Textures panels are available in opaque, clear, and translucent colors, and may be but to custom shapes and sizes.

Contact: Reynolds Polymer Technology, Inc., Grand Junction, CO, USA.
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Lunalite

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:00:22 +0000

Lunalite decorative surfaces exhibit a range of effects, from rustic textures to metallic shimmer. This collection of sophisticated interlayers features materials like mica, gold flake and sisal fibers, giving surfaces depth and complexity. Custom fabrication ensures that each organic Lunalite surface is unique. Natural, metallic, holographic and recycled inclusions are embedded in a range of materials including glass and acrylic, and glass panels may be tinted to match virtually any color. Lunalite technology can be applied to doors, windows, dividers, walls, counter tops, and displays.

Contact: Architectural Systems, Inc., New York, NY, USA.
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Screens

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:00:20 +0000

Based on an increased interest in visually permeable surfaces, Forms+Surfaces has developed a line of sophisticated perforated metal called Screens. The Screens collection is intended to enable architects and designers to create a custom-designed look without the logistical or budgetary constraints typical of a custom system. Screens can be used to divide space, provide privacy, or alter or protect from light.

Screens are available in Stainless Steel or in Forms+Surfaces’ proprietary Fused Metal material, each in multiple high-durability and standard finishes. Eco-Etch, an environmentally safe process of etching metal, can also be specified for additional visual enhancement. The Screens collection includes a growing number of decorative designs, each inspired by a different cultural or nature-inspired theme.

Contact: Forms+Surfaces, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Metal Series

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:00:37 +0000

B.lab Italia’s “Metal Series” surfaces contain liquids infused with metal particles that are trapped within resilient a polymer shell. The result is an interactive floor tile or horizontal surface that responds to pressure as well as electric charge. Building occupants’ footsteps are temporarily recorded by the movement of fluids, and a high-level static charge will actually allow a prolonged “drawing” within the surface.

According to designers Gianfranco Barban and Gregg Brodarick, B-Surfaces Metal Surfaces are intended to transform movement into memory, appropriating the floor as a tool for creative expression. The liquids contained within B-Surfaces are non-toxic, and tiles should be laid on smooth horizontal surfaces for best effect.

Contact: B.lab Italia, Gallarate, Italy.
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Mycoply

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:00:55 +0000

Mycoply board is a mycological biomaterial that is actually grown in a few months. It has properties similar to balsa wood and can be easily formed when saturated, yet will hold shape once dried. Athough balsa wood is biodegradable and natural, it is not easy renewable and disrupts its local environment when harvested. Mycoply, however, is rapidly renewable, grown using agricultural byproducts, and does not interrupt its surrounding ecosystem. Mycoply can replace core materials such as balsa, honey comb, or a variety of petrol foams for wind turbine blades, boat hulls, lightweight vehicle panels and many other applications.

Mycoply also represents a low-embodied-energy manufacturing process as the material self assembles at room temperature and pressure in the dark. Additionally, its performance is superior in many ways to current structural core materials due to the ease in which it may be bent and formed. MycoPly reduces waste as it is grown to near-net shape and does not require post-processing.

Contact: Ecovative Design, Troy, NY, USA.
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Jali Cascata Zari

Blaine Brownell — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:00:35 +0000

Sensitile Systems’ Jali Cascata Zari panels combine the light refractive properties of their Jali series of panels—acrylic-based composites designed to harness and extend the intensity of ambient illumination—with the color dispersion of a dichoric film layer. The result is a visually-arresting array of multiple colors that dynamically respond to changing viewing angles, producing unexpected changes in tandem with contextual lighting conditions.

Contact: SensiTile Systems, Ypsilanti, MI, USA.
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Imagine Tile

Blaine Brownell — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:00:58 +0000

Imagine Tile, Inc. can take any two-dimensional image and incorporate it into the glaze of an incredibly vivid, commercially-rated ceramic tile. Imagine Tile uses a patented process which treats ceramic glazes like printing inks. Pure minerals and ores are ground micro-fine and suspended in a liquid to produce substances similar to printing inks. The mineral and ore-based image is printed and coated with a refractory material that creates a glass finish. Once the tile is fired at approximately 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit, the glazes fuse with the body of the tile. The result is a graphic and durable decorative tile.

Imagine Tile meets or exceeds ASTM standards for commercial floor and wall applications, and independent tests certify that the product is frost-proof, UV and chemical resistant, as well as ADA compliant. Moreover, Imagine Tile possesses a surface MOH rating of 7 or higher. The product is supplied with a five-year manufacturer warranty.

Contact: Imagine Tile, Inc., Bloomfield, NJ, USA.
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Foam

Blaine Brownell — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:00:09 +0000

OMA developed Foam as part of their work for Prada. In addition to the design of new spatial typologies, the development of new materials expands the interior palette of the new Prada epicenter stores. Ranging from translucent cast resin for shelves to bubble-textured silicone floor mats, the creation of a new substance called Foam manifests a radical redefinition of surface and material.

Foam is a polyurethane cast of an aggregate condition between solid and void. It is both a regular and irregular structure of sponge-like consistency that can be cast in stages from hard to soft, and from transparent to opaque. It forms a substance which can be used to build objects as well as entire spaces, a further interpretation of solid and void.

Foam was developed beginning with an architectural model using a regular cleaning sponge. Because the visual effect of this backlit texture was very intriguing, OMA initiated an extensive search to recreate this material in 1:1 scale. The architect made hundreds of prototypes in order to test hole sizes, percentages of openness, translucencies, depths, colors, etc.

In its multiple and varied manifestations, Foam offers a new definition of functional and visual properties between artificial and natural, irregular and regular, transparent and opaque, translucent and solid, flexible and rigid qualities in the design of interior environments.

Contact: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
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