![Book Flatlay Cover Front Transparent Trio[1]](https://d31dpzy4bseog7.cloudfront.net/media/2024/06/07080212/Book_Flatlay_Cover_Front_Transparent_Trio1.png)
26 Hall Street by ClarkeHopkinsClarke and Elton Group
There’s something unmatched about the luxurious warmth of timber interiors.
An accent of natural grain can instantly make a space feel elegant, grounded and calm – in fact, there’s plenty of research that claims timber interiors can even lower our stress levels. But solid timber is not always a sustainable choice or a practical one when it comes to large commercial spaces. There is, however, a way to harness the organic beauty of timber in a material that is cost-effective, environmentally considerate and flexible enough to allow for creative applications: timber veneer.
That’s perfectly illustrated in the new commercial building at 26 Hall Street in Melbourne’s Hawthorn East. Designed by ClarkeHopkinsClarke and built by Newpol, the five-storey office development features a large central foyer connecting the ground and first floor. The stand-out design feature is the timber panelling, which wraps from the ceiling up to the bulkhead, enclosing the mezzanine above, and lends texture, warmth and wow-factor to the building’s main entrance.
The feature was achieved with Elton Group’s Eveneer WoodWall, a game-changing prefinished product constructed by hand laying a 0.2-millimetre layer of timber veneer with polyurethane coating onto a backing of paper and foil. The veneer is highly flexible, allowing it to be easily applied onto curved surfaces – such as the showstopping staircase at 26 Hall Street. It’s also one of the only timber veneer products to achieve a Group One fire rating, making it the perfect choice for aesthetically pleasing yet fire rating-compliant foyers, lobbies, lifts and corridors.
The WoodWall veneer used at Hall Street is from the Eveneer ALPIlignum range, which uses wood grown in sustained yield forests that is peeled, colour enhanced, re-formed into a square log and then re-sliced, lending a consistent look to the grain. The sheets are sequence-matched so they can be hung in the same order they were sliced from the log and applied much like wallpaper.
An accent of natural grain can instantly make a space feel elegant, grounded and calm – in fact, there’s plenty of research that claims timber interiors can even lower our stress levels.
The product can be applied directly to walls and ceilings, without framing, onto materials including plaster and plasterboard, metal, MDF, particleboard and plastic. In builds where sustainability is a key priority, this greatly reduces the overall number and quantity of materials used. WoodWall also employs a patented technology for slicing the veneer extremely thinly, increasing the log’s yield by up to 300 per cent, saving many trees in the process.
With a product so versatile and cost effective, it’s easy to see why designers and architects are choosing WoodWall veneers to create happier, harmonious spaces for the people who live and work in them, including the new tenants at 26 Hall Street.
Architecture and interior design by ClarkeHopkinsClarke. Build by Newpol Construction. Timber wallcovering by Elton Group.
