Photos by Norwegian Presence / Curator and Stylists: Kråkvik & D’Orazio, Photographer: Sara Angelica Spilling

Photos by Norwegian Presence / Curator and Stylists: Kråkvik & D’Orazio, Photographer: Sara Angelica Spilling

P R O C E S S

Upcoming Exhibition:

Norwegian Presence 2022 will take place beneath the spectacular mural ceiling of Galleria Milano in Brera – putting Norway right at the epicentre of Milan Design Week. Curated and designed by revered stylist duo Kråkvik&D’Orazio, the exhibition will focus on the relationship between landscape and material, and explore the ways in which Norway’s distinctive topography and abundant natural resources have shaped its design identity. In the heart of Brera, from the 7th—12th of June 2022. https://www.norwegianpresence.no/

B R E N T : S O F I E N B E R G P A R K E N

Made in Oslo, Norway.

Brent is a series of ambiguous furniture forms made from flame-blackened maple using local urban timber from Sofienberg park in Oslo. 

BRENT

Flame-blackened Maple 

Brent is a series of ambiguous furniture forms made from flame-blackened maple using local urban timber from the city of Oslo. The sculptural tables are almost liquid-like in appearance, each with its own unique configuration and form. Surfaces are flame-treated to create a penetrating finish, an old technique to preserve and protect wood from the elements, promoting the material’s longevity while remaining biodegradable. The maple is sourced from a local urban sawmill that works in close collaboration with the city’s arborists to make use of fallen trees as a solution to the environmental waste and value loss created by the current management of urban trees. 

FORM:

As a design, the series is made of low sculptural forms that while dark in tone are light in form and movement. The shapes are meant to be forms that we do not have an immediate association with. Form movements that prompt our curiosity. Surface forms that have function, but combine a sculptural attitude. The configurations were found through swirling ink studies, where the ink has just as much will as the hand that wields it. A way in which to develop a shape language that aims for the unfamiliar and ambiguous.

TECHNIQUE:

Flame-treating has been for centuries a manner in which to preserve or harden the common and versatile material that is timber. From tools to boatforms to even architecture it has found purpose. While sealing and preserving it, the wood remains ultimately biodegradable. A way in which to blacken and preserve the form without adding composites that compromise it’s biodegradability and material singularity for a circular design approach. 

MATERIAL:

The material used is local Norwegian maple sourced from the urban saw mill Oslo Bruk. Located in the very heart of the city of Oslo, Oslo Bruk endeavors to work in close collaboration with the city’s arborists to make use of fallen trees as a solution to the environmental waste and the value loss created by the current management of urban trees. 

Trees within older cities, such as Oslo, are not uncommonly elderly broadleaf trees, trees that produce beautiful hardwoods. Trees that have a high value for the quality of their timber but also for their cultural significance of the years they have grown alongside the inhabitants of these significant locations. 

From time to time these trees fall due to storms or must be felled due to a variety of reasons, such as disease. In cities all over the world the most convenient solution in the removal of this timber is often to chop and chip it. Although a biodegradable material, the value of the timber is lost. Initiatives such as Oslo Bruk, and worldwide: Los Angeles’s Angel City Lumber and London’s Hampson Woods, look to take care of this unique resource. 

Brent is made using maple that Oslo Bruk has overseen the removal, processing, and drying of these valued timber slabs in their urban saw mill located in Middelalder Park a mere three kilometers from Sofienberg Park where the maple stood. Felled due to disease, the tree was first host to the installation Armour (2019) by the artist Antti Laitinen before now finding new life in preserved and lasting objects of value and care.