Spotlight: Spicy Innovation at DIRTT

DIRTT is a company that always seems to grab our attention and make us smile. This week, we’re directing a spotlight onto a project the wall solutions company recently completed for a wood product manufacturer/marketer. The project caught our eye for its creativity and its flexibility.

Custom DIRTT wall solutions for Roseburg, a wood product manufacturer. Photography: courtesy of Christian Columbres, Architectural Photographer

Roseburg, the client company, had recently completed a rebrand and was moving into a new office that they wanted be a full expression of its “sawdust in our veins” identity.

Project architect Rowell Brokaw Architects did an excellent job of leveraging the construction flexibility that DIRTT products offer to create innovative, uncommon design elements for its client. What’s more, it uses the client’s own products and materials throughout the DIRTT system.

The most eye-catching solution is a double-glazed wall – what DIRTT calls an “Evil Twin” wall – with sawdust and wood chips dropped into it, filling the wall about halfway.

The solution, which provides a light level of privacy, is a perfect branding opportunity for the newly rebranded Roseburg.

Custom graphics applied to a DIRTT glass wall

The sawdust and wood chip wall solution presented a unique challenge.

“If you think about it, with any bit of moisture in there, you could have a wonderful ant farm,” notes Pamela Armstrong, regional market developer of DIRTT. “The installer bought a clothes dryer and dried all of the sawdust before placing it inside the glass.”

On other DIRTT glass walls, the Rowell Brokaw design team applied graphics of forest skylines and cross-cut timber trunks, offering a touch of privacy to glass enclosed spaces while also embodying the company’s vision and mission to provide superior wood products in an amusing way.

Conference

In meeting rooms, DIRTT also provided micro-perforated tiles surrounding imbedded monitors for aesthetically pleasing acoustic management.

Other, less attention-grabbing solutions throughout the space are noteworthy and no less innovative. Standard DIRTT walls are not load-bearing, but since the client wanted to be able to get above the walls to access the HVAC system in some areas of the ceiling, DIRTT collaborated with a seismic engineering firm out of California to develop custom load-bearing walls.

The project speaks to the endless possibilities of DIRTT solutions, provided the client is blessed with an imaginative design team at the helm. Roseburg’s new offices are bright and creative, and a champion of its mission and vision for the future.

 

>DIRTT solutions used: Barn Doors, Pivot Doors, Solid Walls, Combination Walls, Glass Clerestory, Glass Walls, DIRTT Power, Cornice, seismic, DIRTT accessories, Custom unpainted MDF tiles

>Finishes used: Corning® Willow® Glass, Chromacoat, Micro-Perforated Tiles, Anodized Aluminum, Write Away, Vinyl Applied by Others

>Client Industry: Manufacturing

>Architect/Designer: Rowell Brokaw Architects

>GC: McKensie Commercial

>Distribution Partner: GRIT Building Solutions

Leaf Folding Wall

And while we’re on the subject of DIRTT, we thought we’d also call attention to recent company press announcements. We’re inching forward toward NeoCon in June, and companies are beginning to introduce new products that will officially debut there in Chicago. As a preview of its new product innovations, DIRTT announced Leaf Folding Wall, a new solution still in prototype phase, a few weeks ago.

Leaf, developed by DIRTT co-founder and product development vice president Geoff Gosling and his team, is an innovation that will help transform new and existing DIRTT interior wall systems into foldable collapsible structures.

Leaf Folding Wall

“While foldable walls are nothing new, Leaf breaks new ground in that it can be retrofitted onto any DIRTT environment ever created, thereby protecting clients’ existing investments,” reads the press announcement. Leaf works with any DIRTT wall. “It’s essentially a behavior or mechanism that can be used on new builds to create collapsible walls in addition to working perfectly with existing DIRTT walls clients have already used.”

“DIRTT is fundamentally about building adaptive environments, and Leaf is an extension of that,” Mr. Gosling noted in the press announcement. “It’s for those people and environments that want nimble change in seconds. It’s a bizarre thing to be able to do, taking existing installations and allowing them to become foldable environments.”

Leaf Folding Wall

Leaf can be used in a bunch of clever ways, but in short the two major benefits to designers and companies are its abilities to accommodate sudden change in space requirements through reconfiguration, and to reuse a company’s existing DIRTT components.

“Retrofitting existing solid, glass and stacked walls with a Leaf mechanism means elements you already owned are repurposed, significantly reducing waste and environmental impacts,” noted the product description.

It’s not confirmed that Leaf will officially launch at NeoCon, but nonetheless we’re excited to see continuing innovation at DIRTT!