maps wood pavement

Xilo 1934, a long-established company producing and selling wooden floors and wall coverings, asked 10 designers to create a new line of "painted" parquet using a technology that prints directly onto wood. LCA's inspiration was the material itself: "The features of every tree remind us of the maps of great cities. Knots become squares, wormholes turn into streets, bark defines blocks and neighbourhoods. It is amazing how Venice or Manhattan seen from the sky can resemble and recall the natural geometry of wood. There has always been a strong bond between people and nature, even at very different scales; over the years, trees and cities build up their own history and their unique, inimitable beauty. The idea is a game: take a metropolis, take it apart but keep its soul, its signature; do the same with wood, then freely put the pieces back together and create our own unique, personal city [maps]."