STAGING IN OAK

Luxuriant contrast in oak: With a keen sense for the use of wooden surfaces in modern interior design, an exclusive residential building in Karlsruhe was created over the course of around two years. For the Karlsruhe interior fitter Martin Fuchs, who received the request in 2019 from the Austrian architect Laurenz Vogel, this interior design was a special challenge: wood as far as the eye can see, in dimensions for which he brought on board the support of the Heidelberg-based carpentry MTB. The scope and complexity of the individual carpentry work would have been impossible for the interior finishing company to handle on its own within the specified finishing time frame.

The range of oak veneers, colours and wood structures planned by the architect was impressive. With the Karlsruhe veneer specialist Schorn & Groh, Martin Fuchs sat gladly directly at the source: three quarters of the oak veneers used came from the almost immeasurable stock of the southern German veneer supplier. While Fuchs made all the furniture in the attic, the second basement and parts of the upper floor, MTB took care of the kitchen fronts, bathrooms, children's rooms and the finishing of the living room, in addition to the 6-metre-high pivot doors and impressive wall panelling on the ground floor.

The vigorously brushed thick-layer veneer of the wall panelling fascinates both with its distinctly tactile structure and with the alternating diagonal joint pattern of the deeply structured oak, which creates particularly beautiful lighting effects. The fronts of the room-dividing built-in units of an open-plan kitchen on the ground floor are also made of dark-stained, brushed oak veneers, in which the diagonal joining pattern of the walls is continued. The perfect contrast to the dark surfaces is provided by the light, white brushed oak veneer treated with a white pigmented natural matt lacquer which was used for the furniture and doors throughout the house.

Around 1.5 oak logs were used in the property by more than 20 interior fitters and carpenters from both craft businesses. The excellent interaction between the two teams involved is reflected in the quality and execution of the interior fittings, which appear to have been cast from the same mold: The sophisticated signature of the planners can be seen right down to the use of uniform fittings and materials as well as refined details, and is evident throughout the entire exclusive building project.