Partition
Partition, by Studio David Thulstrup and Sto
The hardest part of the process, says Danish architect David Thulstrup, was ‘finding the right idea’, one that both explored the properties of the material and responded to the Wallpaper* Handmade exhibition’s theme of Wellness + Wonder.
We had paired Thulstrup with Sto, a German company that makes panelling with acoustic properties, as well as wall insulation, rainscreen cladding and render systems. ‘I felt it was so interesting to work with this idea of creating a quiet moment of meditation in space,’ says Thulstrup. ‘I wanted to make something that you could walk into or pass through – a zone free of sound.’ Making a whole room was not really an option, so his solution was to make an object that represented a room: a freestanding room divider that you can ‘sit in front of or enclose yourself with’.
We have been tracking Thulstrup’s career for a while. We visited his first house design (see W*205) in 2016 and loved his first furniture collection for Møbel Copenhagen, not to mention his recently completed interiors for the new Noma (see W*229). Given this long experience with private and retail interiors, and especially for Noma’s dining spaces, Thulstrup is well-acquainted with the need for good acoustics. ‘Acoustics can change your experience of a space completely,’ he says. ‘It is something that needs to be invested in and taken seriously.’ The Noma project was about ‘materiality’ and working with wood and stone; there were no white painted walls or ceilings to conceal acoustic treatments. ‘So we had to put gaps between the wood on the ceiling to allow sound to be absorbed.’ With the Sto surfaces, however, the gaps to soak up sound are built into the material itself, so Thulstrup was able to approach his sound cocoon object differently.
The panels of Thulstrup’s room divider are made of an acoustic, sound-absorbing