Material is everything
How material becomes architecture, atmosphere and experience.
Materials are never an afterthought. They shape what we see and what we feel — how light moves through a space, how proportions are perceived, how surfaces relate to one another and how architecture is experienced through touch.
At The Urban View, the flooring became one of the most important architectural and atmospheric decisions of the entire project. The penthouse follows an unusual façade geometry — angular in some places, gently curved in others. The existing straight plank flooring imposed one continuous direction onto this changing perimeter, inevitably meeting the façade at awkward and constantly shifting angles. Visually, it added restlessness to an architecture that called for calm.
"We needed a floor that would bring the geometry into balance without imposing another direction."
The answer was an unusually large-format herringbone. Its alternating geometry creates order without a dominant axis, allowing the changing perimeter of the architecture to become part of one calm, continuous field.
But geometry was only one part of the decision. Herringbone carries a sense of classical elegance and familiarity. By dramatically increasing its scale, that familiar pattern takes on a different character — quieter, more generous and distinctly contemporary. Timeless, but not traditional. Contemporary, but never fashionable.
When selection becomes development
Across a residence of this scale, conventional herringbone would have appeared too small and restless. We needed exceptionally large elements combined with a very particular colour, surface and performance.
What we were looking for simply did not exist as a standard product. The floor therefore became a bespoke development together with Biehrer, combining their exceptional craftsmanship in wood flooring with the specific architectural and atmospheric requirements of The Urban View.
With daylight entering the penthouse from almost every direction, UV stability was essential. The oak needed a pale, neutral tone that would retain its character over time rather than gradually turning yellow.
And its surface needed to feel as carefully considered as its colour. We wanted refinement without perfection — elegant enough for the architecture, but with enough texture and natural irregularity to remain unmistakably wood.
"When you walk barefoot through the house, you should feel that you are walking on wood."
Material is experienced with more than the eye. Its warmth, texture and natural variation become part of how we perceive a space — often without consciously noticing them.
One decision leads to the next
This is also how we approach a project. We begin by observing and analysing what is already there — architecture, proportions, light, surroundings and, above all, the people who will live there. From this understanding, the first decisions emerge. Rather than treating them as isolated ideas, each decision becomes the starting point for the next.
Once the parquet had established the geometry, scale, tone and atmosphere of The Urban View, the surrounding materials had to respond to it. In the entrance, Castle Stone, laid in a traditional Roman pattern, introduces a subtle classical reminiscence. Its irregularity, depth and sense of age create a deliberate counterpoint to the precision of the contemporary architecture. For bathrooms and terraces, we chose Kronos Reverse, carefully matched to the tonal character of the oak. The material could be continued in different specifications — 20 mm outside, 10 mm for interior floors and 6 mm on the shower walls. One material could therefore move through very different architectural conditions, connecting inside and outside, floor and wall, without interrupting the overall atmosphere. Different materials. Different purposes. One tonal language.
Material is everything
Our process is not about assembling a collection of beautiful materials. It is about understanding relationships. One decision grows logically from another — architecture informs geometry, geometry informs material, material informs colour and texture, and each of these decisions influences how the space is ultimately seen and felt. In this sense, our approach is close to what fascinates us about nature.
Nature can be extraordinarily complex, yet rarely feels designed. Proportion, rhythm, repetition, variation and material coexist with an almost effortless coherence.
We perceive the whole before we understand its individual parts. That is the quality we look for in our interiors. Every decision has a reason. Every material has a role. Everything is carefully considered. But in the finished space, the reasoning should disappear.
What remains is a sense of coherence that feels almost undesigned — as if everything simply belongs. This is what "material is everything" means to us. Not the accumulation of beautiful surfaces, but a process of observation, analysis and interconnected decisions that gradually becomes an individual spatial idea — something you can see, feel and experience without needing to understand why it works. This is where material selection becomes material design. And where design begins to feel natural.