Designers Form Us With Love on Träullit Dekor
“We were looking into manufacturersof woodwool cement board inorder to install it in our new studio,” says Form Us With Love. “It’s an interesting material; simple, good looking and environmental friendy. Besides, we needed to stop the echoing.”
That’s how FORM US WITH LOVE found TRÄULLIT, the only manufacturerof woodwool cement board in Sweden. It’s a 20-man strong factory in the town of Österbymo – little more than a fleck on the map between Stockholm and Malmö. In true spirit of FORM US WITH LOVE,instead of just ordering the quantities needed for the studio, it initiated a project that would break new ground for the 60-year-old TRÄULLIT. This is how Hexagon was created, a collection of hexagonal discs in a range of colours.“Nowadays you find this material in stables and schools, but with this new collection TRÄULLIT can enter the design market and reach a new group of creative consumers,” says Form Us With Love.
The process of making wood wool cement is quite simple: wood slivers is cut from logs, then mixed with water and cement and put in a mould to dry into shape. The result is a material that is environmentally friendly, water resistant and sound absorbant. In the Hexagon concept by FORM US WITH LOVE, design complements the practicality of the material, creating a simple but striking product. The collection will expand on an annual basis with new colours and new shapes being introduced. The 2011 collection is produced in a range of earthy colours with suitably nature-inspired names like cloud, moss, leaf, sky and stone.
“This is a new area for us,” says Bengt Rääf, owner of TRÄULLIT. “We have been doing the same thing for along time and you get a bit stuck in your ways, so it’s really refreshing to see someone taking the material in a new direction. ”For a company without any previous experience of the design industry it’s a big and unknown step to take.