Digital Wood: A New Approach to Shaping Layered Veneer
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LMBRJK is a wood products design/fabrication studio based in Antwerp, Belgium. The company uses an unusual approach in its design and fabrication process.

LMBRJK uses a CAD-based, 80-watt laser cutter with which hundreds of veneer layers are tooled. LMBRJK then hand assembles layers into precisely designed shapes. Every item goes through a rigorous process to achieve a hand-worked surface finish.

In its current exploration of materials, LMBRJK is driven by a desire to distill radical new species from natural and synthetic ecologies, delivering objects born in the concept of digital wood. The studio marries contemporary digital methods of fabrication with analogue hand-based techniques to produce objects of intrigue and function.

LMBRJK pushes at material and procedural tolerances in a continuous investigation to find new variations in form. It is through a desire to extract design from the visual splendor of the computer, that LMBRJK finds satisfaction in the hand-made.

In its current exploration of materials, LMBRJK principals John Kleinhample and Masa Loncaric say they are "driven by a desire to distill radical new species from natural and synthetic ecologies, delivering objects born in the concept of digital wood."

Kleinhample and Loncaric say they set up LMBRJK in the spirit of the lumberjack tradition, transforming rough and finished lumber into designed objects and furniture through a process of digital and analogue tooling.

Formally trained as an architect in Los Angeles, a city defined by the film industry’s inertia towards visualizing dreams and radical forms, Jon began LMBRJK after designing in New York for Asymptote Architects and in Berlin for Barkow Leibinger Architects. Coming from a political advising and financial background, Masa took a career turn and now acts as an integral managing and creative part of LMBRJK. Jon's pedigree along with Masa's Slovenian background, which intertwine a mixture of geometric acrobatics and a rich appreciation of raw materials, is what forms the principles behind LMBRJK.

 

LMBRJK in its processes uses hardwood and softwood species. In its search for rich natural materials LMBRJK follows the principles of sustainable harvested wood and tries its upmost to understand the processes and people behind the sourced materials.

LMBRJK also designs and hand produces all packaging materials for its items.

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