48hr Design Challenge winner NZ Wood’s presentation of the new Orion site

The 48hr Design Challenge, run by the Christchurch City Council and held at Lincoln University, provided an opportunity for Council to gain inspiration from the design and architecture industry, while testing the draft Central City Plan currently being developed.

A total of 15 teams took part in the Challenge, with seven people in each including engineers, planners, urban designers, architects and landscape architects, as well as one student on each team.

The four sites within the Red Zone included the Cathedral Square and BNZ Building; 160 Gloucester Street; the Orion NZ Building at 203 Gloucester Street; and 90 Armagh Street, including the Avon River and Victoria Square. The fifth site, which sits outside the Red Zone, is the former Christchurch Women’s Hospital at 885
Colombo Street.

Presentations of the teams in the 48hr Challenge

Presentations on 160 Gloucester Street

Presentation 1 [PPT 9.46 MB]
Presentation 2 [PPT 120 MB - warning: very large file]
Presentation 3 [PPT 3.6 MB]

Presentations on Cathedral Square and BNZ Building

Presentation 1 [PPT 13.8 MB]
Presentation 2 [PPT 14.1 MB]
Presentation 3 [PPT 7.6 MB]

Presentations on 90 Armagh Street

Presentation 1 [PDF 26 MB]
Presentation 2 [PPT 10.4 MB]
Presentation 3 [PPT24.1 MB]

Presentations on Former Christchurch Women’s Hospital

Presentation 1 [PPT 5 MB]
Presentation 2 [PPT 29.1 MB]
Presentation 3 [PPT 5.61 MB]

Presentations on Orion NZ site

Presentation 1 [PPT 13 MB]
Presentation 2 [PPT 9 MB]
Presentation 3 [PPT 25.6 MB] ~ NZ WOOD

Also see: A peek into the future – Christchurch rebuild and
NZ WOOD WINS supreme award in 48 Hour Christchurch Rebuild design competition

January 2012 will mark the beginning of a new era for engineered timber design in New Zealand. Nelson based company, XLam are going to be manufacturing cross laminated timber (CLT) from local timber resources.

Gaining a huge market share in Europe and North America, we can see the benefits of CLT in designs such as the Murray Grove Tower and also the Sheringham School, both built in London.

Specialised machinery has been imported from Germany. XLam panels will be available in a number of sizes and CAD/CAM and CNC computerised technology will deliver precision cut prefabricated components. This enables construction time to be greatly reduced, meaning lower costs.

CLT is manufactured by glue laminating cross layered solid timber planks to form panels of 3, 5, 7 or an odd number of layers (similar to plywood).  This not only gives this engineered wood panel strength and stiffness, but also dimensional stability.

Cross laminated timber technology can perform remarkably well in earthquakes so is particularly relevant for New Zealand conditions. This can be seen in the following video from Miki, Japan:

Key benefits of CLT include:

• Can be used as a complete construction solution or used as a component in conjunction with other building materials including Glulam and LVL as well as a hybrid system with concrete and steel

• Rapid construction through factory prefabrication

• The panels are fire resistant, thermally efficient and recyclable

• Sustainably manufactured in a low energy process from local and fully renewable plantation resource.

For more information visit the XLam website, view the case studies above or alternately contact Johann Betz from js betz consulting ltd.

“I’m proud to be associated with an industry which is clearly looking to the future with this document, and Woodco is investigating developing a strategy to capitalise on the issues identified in the study” said Doug Ducker, chair of Woodco.

“While we still need to do more as an industry to support industry-good activities, the cooperation that was involved in putting this study together shows that the industry has come a long way. Once developed, an industry strategy will also provide the government and other key stakeholders with a road map that outlines the direction and priorities of the industry. This will assist the government in aligning its programmes and policies with the industry’s direction and priorities”

The study involved interviews with industry leaders representing businesses from all parts of the value chain, as well as service providers, key stakeholders, the Minister of Forestry and a number of senior government officials.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Acting Deputy Director-General Iain Cossar congratulated the Wood Council of New Zealand for moving towards developing a strategic plan for the industry, saying “It is pleasing to see the sectors that make up the forest industry express their willingness to work together to improve the industry’s long-term, international competitiveness. A collaborative and strategic approach by the industry should improve the profitability and resilience of wood-based businesses.”

MAF’s recent Situation and Outlook for New Zealand Agriculture and Forestry report noted strong growth in forestry exports. Total exports earnings for the year ended March 2011 were estimated at NZ$4.4 billion, with earnings for next year forecast to rise to NZ$4.7 billion. Continued demand from China, growth in the Indian market and rebuilding after disasters in Christchurch, Queensland and Japan are expected to underpin medium-term demand for wood products.

Click here to read a copy of the study.

Inforest training demonstrating the V8 chainsaw at Field Days.

Exclusive Interview: Matthew Eastvold

We welcome another wonderful designer into the 2Modern family today: Matthew Eastvold of Eastvold Furniture. With his respect for materials and keen eye for clean lines and modern aesthetics, his handmade furniture is becoming a favorite of design-lovers from coast to coast.

Eastvold Furniture is bursting with personality and uniqueness, not to mention originality and quality. Matthew’s background in woodworking and cabinetry really shines through upon examination of his products: joinery is pristine, functionality is king and the style sings with a sense of Mid-Century Modernism meets Shaker-quality craftsmanship. The kind of furniture you buy to last a lifetime and beyond, we’re really finding a lot of inspiration in flipping through his designs for sale as well as the custom projects he’s worked on.

Born, raised and now growing his business in Minnesota, Matthew shares his Midwest home with his lovely wife and two young boys — we love when someone who’s talented is real nice, too. Enjoy this interview we recorded with Matthew while he sat on the porch of his home in Minnesota (extra awesome awarded to the sweet song birds you can hear tweeting in the background); we ask him about his background, how he juggles being a dad and running a business and what’s up for the future:

In case you aren’t in the mood for listening to the interview right now, we’ve graciously typed out every one of his interesting and lovely words for you down below.

2Modern: We are here with Matthew Eastvold, who is the principle behind Eastvold Furniture, a simple and modern wood furniture company out of Minnesota. Thanks for being here.
Matthew Eastvold: Thanks for having me.

2M: Looking at your website and looking at the furniture that you design, it really seems like your company values simple, good design. How would you describe your style?
ME: I would say simple and I’ve just always let the materials do the work. When I was in cabinetry we did a lot of modern kitchens and modern cabinets and I learned a lot about letting the material do the work. Because there are so many beautiful woods and even if you are doing laminates and steel they are still beautiful colors to choose from, if you keep the design simple you can really let that shine through. You don’t hide anything. And I like simple design because it feels uncluttered and it feels — I don’t know if peaceful is the right word — but it makes it feel calm, at least it does for me.

2M: It sounded like some cabinetry is in your background, is that what made you decide to go into wood furniture? What is your background like?
ME: Well I grew up on a farm, a big conventional crop farm. And my dad didn’t farm his whole life so he got into welding and worked in his welding shop. Through high school and college I was doing metal fabrication. I always loved woodworking; we had a woodworking shop in the back corner and I would always build furniture with scraps. Then I moved to Minneapolis about ten years ago and had an opportunity to work for a cabinet shop there, and this guy was working for a couple of really great architects in the Minneapolis area. I worked for him for about six months and he decided to move out of Minneapolis to his home state. And I sort of walked into these amazing contacts, so I sort of accidentally fell into cabinetry but it wasn’t too far off from what I wanted to be doing and I really enjoyed the design community.

So we did cabinetry for a number of years and started developing furniture pieces with big projects we were working on — the customers ultimately needed furniture, too — so I was able to work a little furniture in the mix. The cabinetry thing was accidental, but it was really what gave us a lot of exposure — we got published a lot in a number of publications, especially locally, but national magazines were picking up some of the projects we working on (mainly because of the architects and designers that were really up and coming and doing nice work and getting a lot of exposure). After the housing crash we got out of cabinetry and just decided to keep the furniture going and it’s blossoming into something great.

2M: How about giving us some information about your operation out there? Is it just you? Do you have guys that help you out? Do you work at home? Do you work in a warehouse? What’s it like over there?
ME: I actually live in a town of 17,000 with two private colleges called Northfield, Minnesota and we have a shop outside of Northfield in a town of 300 and I share a shop with actually a cabinetmaking shop, ironically. But we’ve been able to pool resources and I’ve gotten access to really great tools –- tools I wouldn’t be able to have on my own and it makes things easier to produce and easier to refine. And now it’s turning out that they’re stepping into the role of building a lot of my orders because I’ve gotten to know the guys, I trust them, I’m able to maintain quality control and work on projects. So they’re not employees but they’re in the same shop and they’re helping me out because things have definitely gotten to where I can’t keep up with orders on my own.

2M: Well that’s definitely a problem you want to have.
ME: Yeah, that’s good.

2M: What’s it like living and working in Minnesota? Because you know you’re not in one of the larger cities like L.A. or New York where a lot of the furniture designers are coming out of.
ME: It definitely affects my work because it’s where I grew up; I believe design comes from your background and your influences. But Minnesota has a really vibrant design community both in the arts and theater and music — everyone knows about the music here — but there are a lot of really great architects. And it doesn’t have the population to support a lot of what I’m doing, but there are a lot of other people doing similar things. And I think being centralized in the U.S., it costs the same to ship in either direction, and most of my orders are in New York and California. So it’s nice that way, it might save on shipping costs. I think everyone in the furniture business ships so it’s nice to be centralized. Minnesota is a great state to be in as far as having influences and having peers to talk with about business and watch what they’re doing.

2M: Well I know you and your wife have just had a new little baby boy and you also have an older son as well. How has having kids affected your creative process or how has it affected your productivity? How you run your business?
ME: Before Avery — our oldest son is four — my wife was in graduate school and my wife and I just worked constantly. You know, 16 hour days; it’s pretty easy to get it all done on your own. And once we had Avery — I had always wanted to make family my number one priority and sort of build my work around my family instead of being gone all the time. I grew up with my dad being — my dad’s shop was on our farm so he was always working but he was always around, which was good because he was always available, and it was just a great environment to be raised in.

Now with number two coming along, you have to get a lot more creative with how to get stuff done. I’m not any less ambitious or creative, and I don’t feel like I’m getting any less done, I just need to rely on these guys I share shop with, try to figure out how to do more work at home, because that’s a priority of mine and I really want to be able to do that. I’d say it’s mainly only made things better, because it’s made me be more creative. I used to just work as hard as I could all the time and I think whether you have children or not, that’s not a very healthy thing to do. So I’ve learned to enjoy life a lot more while getting everything done. And be okay with not getting everything done all the time.

2M: You mentioned earlier about letting the materials speak through your work and letting them stand on their own.
ME: I guess my favorite material is wood just for the obvious reasons: it’s warm, very versatile; it’s got lots of color variations. My favorite wood to work with is walnut and kind of coming into more of my favorite is white oak. I like white oak a lot; it’s also a native tree to Minnesota. But I’ve been trying to work more steel into my projects because I grew up working with metal, so I’ve introduced the Elko line using laser cut steel with the powder coating. I like using the laser cutting because I like the onset of technology in furniture, which I know there’s a school of people who are against technology or like to use the old woodworking tools. I’ve sort of embraced the computer generated stuff and the computer operated machines. So the Elko line is sort of playing off the Mid-Century leg design but incorporating a new technology with it and hopefully giving it a fresh look.

2M: So what is up next for you and your company?
ME: The Elko line is sort of new; it came out last year and I just released the Elko coffee table. I’m mainly going to be focus on getting the lines we have going more, more refined, maybe tweaking the designs a bit. But when I do start to come up with new designs it’s going to be smaller items. I don’t want to be unapproachable; I want all different price ranges in there. I sell a lot of the classic coffee table because of the price point and just from a business stand point it’s easier to ship. Maybe more coffee tables. I’ve got a couple of toy boxes that I haven’t fully developed, need to come up with more colors, they have a laminate material. Very simple. So I’d like to do some toy boxes, some coffee tables, and maybe something even more traditional or maybe even more modern. I’ve been focusing on these Mid-Century inspired pieces but it’d be fun to branch out a little bit.

2M: Thank you Matthew! It was a pleasure talking with you.
ME: Yeah, thank you for the interview. It’s a beautiful day here in Minnesota and it was fun talking with you.

2M: You can visit eastvoldfurniture.com/ for more information about Matthew and his products. You’ve been listening to a 2modern designer interview. For more fun podcasts, inspiring design posts and design advice, check out the blog at 2modern.com

Makes sense really…..

If you want to create you own personalised sign, visit andybateman.co.nz

Wow we love this home. Designed by our new favorite interior designer, Jessica Helgerson (of last week’s restaurant Wildwood fame), this home is a crafty mix of modern, casual, craftsman, rustic, seaside, charming and artsy. Of course all the light and views aren’t too shabby, but it’s Jessica’s great style that combines with the homeowners’ style to create this one-of-a-kind look that is so warm, inviting and relaxing. We love the pops of modern color and pattern we see in textiles, and love all the unique shapes, lines and furniture pieces we spot. More amazing photos and information about the project here.

Images: Still don’t know who took these photos. Please let us know if you do; they’re so gorgeous I would love to give full credit where credit is due.

Architects: PARATELIER
Location: Carvalhal, Portugal
Architect: Leonardo Paiella
Project team: Monica Ravazzolo, Leonardo Paiella
Project area: 115 sqm
Project year: 2009 – 2011
Photographs: Leonardo Finotti

One volume, located parallel with the lake, is divided into three parts for three different functions – living, storage and parking.

The volume, entirely made from wood, grew out of even simpler element which was multiplied to create light and simple construction that would respect the natural environment in the most sensitive, aesthetic and creative way.

Deriving from the single module, with the dimensions of 250 x 450 cm, the whole architecture was made by multiplication of it, to create the three types of program.

The wooden structure that forms the each of ten modules contain a subtile variations depending on the demand of certain type of program.

The first four modules are open from the one side and are serving as the parking space within the object. The following two modules are partly open with the purpose of storaging agricultural and other material.

Read more about the other modules here.

This project started as design for the subdivision of an existing residential block in East St Kilda, to be sold off as a house and land package. The clients had no intention of living in the new house, so they gave me complete design freedom. What they did not realize is that I would, by stealth, create a design that they would want to build for themselves. And they did!

Read more here