Ceramic

In Thomas Sandell’s new acoustic panel Soundwave® Ceramic, architecture and design comes together. With his exceptional knowledge of the details required to create a qualitative interior, Sandell has designed an acoustic panel that is more architecture than design and that is as pleasing for the eyes and ears as it is lean on the environment.

The inspiration for Ceramic are tiles, a product of many qualities even though the contribution to a good acoustic environment is not one of them. When Thomas Sandell now interprets the architectural qualities of ceramic tiles to design, it is with the help of recycled polyester fibre, an environmentally friendly material whose qualities Offecct has successfully developed during many years in its collection Soundwave®.

”When working on Ceramic, I have tried to think more like an architect than a designer”, says Thomas Sandell who throughout his career has successfully managed to combine both professions. Instead of creating an acoustic panel that is expressive, which according to Sandell design often is, the ambition of Ceramic has been to develop a panel that can cover large surfaces – much in the same way as ceramics are used in architecture.

”I asked myself: ’what does an architect imagine an acoustic panel to look like and what functions should it inhabit?’” Thomas Sandell found the answer to the question as well as inspiration for Ceramic in one of his most recent architectural projects – a private house in the Stockholm Archipelago where ceramic tiles from a revered Dutch ceramics factory was used.

”Soundwave® Ceramic is an acoustic panel with two features”, says Anders Englund, design manager at Offecct. ”We wanted an acoustic panel with which an entire wall structure without any visible joints can be created, even though the geometry of each unit is a square.”

With the acoustic panel Ceramic the long and successful collaboration between Offecct and Thomas Sandell, that resulted in the King chair, which was released in 2008, continues.

Ceramic is designed to be used as lightweight sound absorbers in the upper frequency range (500 Hz and above). These panels help reduce disturbing reflections of environmental sounds such as voices, telephones etc.

Material: Recyclable moulded polyester fibreColour: Anthracite, grey and offwhite