Against the Grain

Wood needs time and a deep understanding of its materiality to truly reveal its innate beauty. TRAPA invests not only these, but also top-notch craftsmanship, in its products, which marry the contemporary and the functional with the compellingly tactile.

By Trapa and Aljoscha Weskott for

Trapa

May 22, 2016 | 10:00 pm CUT

TRAPA's hand-assembled panel-parquet flooring is available in 3D-panel patterns. Its angles make for a rich floor design. Shown here: TRAPA Cantone

Among traditional construction materials, wood is one of the oldest and undoubtedly still one of the most popular. Its advantages are virtually endless. Biodegradable, sturdy, highly versatile, and long-lasting, it can be adapted to nearly any situation. Not least, wood captivates with its timeless beauty and enhances the comfort of any living space. For its multifaceted beauty to achieve its full expression, wood requires both time and caring, expert handling. TRAPA, a family company founded in Traunkirchen, Austria in 1994, shapes this fascinating raw material using special production and drying processes. Innovative thermo-compression treatments cause the xylose to caramelise, bringing out light-stable earth, coffee, and cocoa nuances, and preparing the wood for unrestricted use in designing and furnishing interior space.

The tempered layer-construction of TRAPA's floor panels means they keep their shape, even when humidity levels vary. Their oak flooring (above), available in lengths up to 8 metres, lends additional spatial depth to a room and guarantees elegance

Along with panel, plank, and herringbone parquet flooring, the company now also manufactures contemporary solid wood furniture. Worked by machine and by hand, these objects naturally complement and expand the product range. This opens up new possibilities for TRAPA to coordinate material textures and colours, either orchestrating flooring and furniture in a harmonious unity or contrasting them in striking counterpoint.

The varied surface textures of the wood flooring and furniture, refined by natural processes, develop their own individual character over time. An air-hardening oil technique and the careful use of lye and natural crystal oil afford the wood the equivalent of a permanent wellness treatment. Instead of smothering it under an impermeable layer, this strengthens the wood within its pores, leaving the surface of TRAPA natural wood flooring and furniture able to breathe. The wood attains a high resistance to stains and water, as well as lasting protection against wear. Harnessing both modern technology and our passion for traditional wood craft, TRAPA creates contemporary interior design that evinces our great love for detail.

The careful treatment of the wood with heat, pressure, lye and oil produces natural, light-stable tones, allowing for a highly individual play between solid-wood furniture and floor

The strict avoidance of synthetics and varnishes in the production of our flooring and furniture has a positive effect on the climate of the interiors in which they are set. In this way, over many years, the beauty of the oak, walnut, sweet chestnut, and other woods we use can naturally unfold from within. Because life’s events ultimately help form it, wood lends variety, emotion, and texture to our surroundings, and provides a sense of security and comfort.

At TRAPA, wood is given a special surface texture, through which it tells its own story. “We treat solid wood with natural methods to bring out its natural, vital textures,” says TRAPA CEO Hermann Hörndler. “Wood’s haptic qualities should be allowed to stimulate the senses, because today’s consumer wants to experience the material.” The company knows how to accentuate wood’s natural elegance and bring forth its full effect. From smoothly sanded and brushed, to seemingly three-dimensional, the varied surface textures engage the user through their pleasing tactile quality.

Visitors to TRAPA World in Traunkirchen can experience a wide range of flooring and furniture across 500 square metres (top). Wood requires not only time but passionate craftspeople (above)

The inspirational sources for TRAPA products include old country-style furniture and monastery tables, with their handcrafted joints. “The table is once again the focal point of the house,” Hermann Hörndler says, “a place that facilitates communication and provides a continual point of reference over generations.” TRAPA makes furniture design into an enduring aesthetic experience. The in-house design team is supported by the prominent designers Christoph March and Marek Gut. In their series “ M&G – Table, Bench, Stool”, they join wood by means of specially fabricated metal elements, forming pieces that are light and elegant in appearance yet very robust. For this furniture collection, the manufacturer has garnered the internationally renowned Red Dot Award 2016.

Panel parquet is hand-treated with lye (above). The wood is carefully dried over time, thereby ridding it of its internal stresses (above)

The firm’s latest interior design concept is a multifunctional wall and furniture system for living and work spaces. TRAPA sees this as a variable dwelling and working landscape that offers myriad options for creating a contemporary, functional ambience. The new wall system’s specially developed track concept allows furniture of widely varying functions to be hooked into the wall and arranged as desired. The modular TRAPA wall and furniture system perfectly accommodates, for example, living room wall units, coat racks, or office furnishings. The system has great potential in the hotel industry as well, where flexible solutions are key. Night table, desk, cabinets, or headboard – everything can be hooked into the versatile wall system.

With its uncompromising standard of quality and innovation, TRAPA has its eye firmly on the future.

At TRAPA World (top), visitors can examine, among other products, the new, multifunctional and modular wall and furniture system (middle). TRAPA's natural-wood flooring and solid-wood furniture impart a sense of well-being (above)

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Traunkirchen, Austria