Soundwave Ando

The new acoustic panel Soundwave® ANDO is the first collaboration with the young Swedish designer Daniel Svahn. Daniel Svahn´s design turns a well known building material into a seemingly contradictory meeting between function and surface. When you cast blocks of concrete, a natural by-product of the manufacturing process are round holes on the surface of the blocks. For the trained eye, these characteristic round holes are the unmistakable sign of a concrete surface.
It’s very interesting when a process leaves a by-product that’s visible and characteristic. For example, when they used to manufacture tunnels in concrete with planks of wood as the mould, the wood grain would leave a negative print on the concrete, just like the holes that is being created when manufacturing concrete blocks. I truly admire the Japanese architect Tadao Ando who lifts these concrete holes and also adds more holes to create regular patterns, which also was one of the starting points for this acoustic panel, explains Daniel Svahn. We have produced Soundwave® ANDO in a rectangular shape which opens up for many creative ways to build your own wall. The rectangular shape also gives an effective price per square meter, which is one of the qualities of building with concrete since it’s a very rational building method, says Kurt Tingdal, CEO, Offecct. To give one material a new expression with a different meaning and function creates excitement. With the new look and a new sound absorbing material, a combination of recycled textile, the eye will experience Soundwave® ANDO as a concrete block.
The concrete block has been transformed from a hard material with sound reflecting properties to a soft absorbing surface. To play with surfaces like this will create interesting environments for meetings to take place in, continues Daniel Svahn.