Foundation year: 2013

WOOD-SKIN offers avant-garde design solutions to elevate environments.

Founded in Milan in 2013, it combines digital manufacturing technologies with traditional components through patented practices. Its applications allow rigid surfaces to become more flexible, and flat ones to acquire three-dimensionality, widening the horizon for architectural projects and surfaces.

WOOD-SKIN gives dynamic volume and character to a multitude of materials, helping architects and designers bridge the gap between digital representation and architectural feasibility.

The WOOD-SKIN raw panel consists of two sheets of rigid material connected through a textile core. Besides guaranteeing untold possibilities, this design favours flexibility and surfaces’ adherence. While the inner structure remains unaltered, the external layers can be of various materials according to the customer’s need.

The options available range from traditional, selecting materials such as wood and aluminium, to unique, tapping into the treasurable catalogue of WOOD-SKIN collaborations with Fenix, Alpi, Almeco, and Forescolor, to name a few.

The computational design department – a team of architects, designers, and engineers – can visualize the transformative power of the WOOD-SKIN surface and substantiate it into complex ad-hoc projects. The combined offer of the two core products, Mesh Sheets and Fold Panels, is completely customizable and fits all design requirements. Finishing materials, dimensions, and geometric patterns can be declined in endless ways, thus ensuring each client with a Tailor-Made experience.

An integral part of the WOOD-SKIN® patented process, the software instructs the machines to tessellate the surfaces of the 3D model. The program reproduces the digital design configuration with precise geometries, sparing heavy and expensive structures.

The company produces optimized elements with minimal waste of material since the manufacturing process can be studied and virtually tested. A simple assembly mechanism allows local workers to install the finished claddings themselves, erasing intermediate substructures.

Moreover, WOOD-SKIN products enjoy a flat shipping method and eight weeks lead time for deliveries everywhere on the globe.

PRODUCTS

MESH SHEETS

A game-changing technology in the field of hard surfaces design, the revolutionary WOOD-SKIN Mesh Sheets system brings to life smooth 3D surfaces. The composite can be bent into different sizes and shapes, whilst keeping the surface’s appearance smooth. The result is sleek membranes capturing the properties of lighter and more elastic materials, such as paper or fabric.

Mesh Sheets are ideal for environments with a curated aesthetic. Also, they provide features unachievable with traditional coverings, such as acoustic comfort improvement for specific settings.

FOLD PANELS

Fold Panels are 3D boards with compelling geometries, built inside square or rectangular modules. The Fold Panel concept is uniquely suited to transform a space with the colours and configurations that best fit the project’s overall vision of the architect. A robust frame sustains the weight of the panels and facilitates the installation on walls and ceilings.

TAILOR-MADE

WOOD-SKIN® architectural and design team has gained years of experience working with top architects and designers on international projects. WOOD-SKIN takes on engineering challenges to design intricate shapes and custom details, devising solutions for apparently unsolvable problems.

For particularly complex projects, the experienced team is on hand to oversee the installation, whether in Italy or abroad. Thanks to WOOD-SKIN’s proprietary design software and programmable manufacturing process, the most expensive and time-consuming aspects of customization, are significantly diminished.

A SUSTAINABLE MISSION

WOOD-SKIN® explores sustainable solutions that pervade every part of the design process to minimize environmental impact. There are common threads among departments: sourcing high-end certified materials, reducing waste through smart production, using low VOC emitting materials and adhesives.

Besides, the flat shipping rate curtails the carbon footprint linked to logistics and reduces transportation costs.

Thus, WOOD-SKIN has actively been moving important steps towards sustainability. Since it represents a process and cannot be achieved una tantum, such a goal is embedded into the company’s philosophy.

Collaboration and transparency between partners and manufacturers are paramount and are fostered by means of functional intelligence and core values.

One future aim is to accomplish “zero-miles” production thanks to the digital nature of the patented process.

The implementation of diffuse manufacturing will sustain local production along with domestic demands for raw materials, avoiding long-distance shipments and consequently abating emissions. The supply chain is at the centre of the long-term vision: from materials procurement to manufacturing, packaging, and logistics. One of the brand’s main values is its ability to evolve.

WOOD-SKIN will tirelessly pursue new strategies to achieve a long-term sustainable impact.

Sustainability is a gained one step at a time and WOOD-SKIN® has committed to the challenge.

FSC®

Since January 2020 WOOD-SKIN has joined the list of FSC®-certified Italian companies. The materials employed for the composite creation come from forests where natural diversity is protected and preserved.

The company’s best interest also lies in local communities and workers, whose rights must be respected. A full list of FSC® materials can be provided upon request.

TREEDOM

WOOD-SKIN holds an ongoing and fruitful collaboration with Treedom, an Italian startup active in the agri-sector. Treedom absorbs some of the costs incurred by farmers when orchards are in their early years and the trees have yet to give fruits.

Thanks to the WOOD-SKIN community and Treedom, a tiny nine-hundred tree wood will grow into a verdant forest in the years to come. There’s no plan to stop any soon, not before having covered the whole planet with trees at least!

DRY ASSEMBLY

WOOD-SKIN® designs remain functional over time, thanks to a dry assembly method tested over years of projects and installations. This, in addition to allowing rapid installation, allows for an equally rapid dismantling of the surface without affecting its technical and aesthetic properties. This solution, studied and perfected over a long period, allows WOOD-SKIN membranes to be reused for new and different applications.