Nine meters of oak

Floor-to-ceiling windows, exposed concrete, striking black furniture – in Haus Brutalisme in Ludwigsburg, minimalist reduction and opulence go hand in hand. Consistent use of exposed concrete – walls and ceilings have been left pure – in the spirit of Brutalism, with accurate lines and without any ornamentation, becomes the stage here for eye-catching standalone furniture pieces and built-in elements in deep black. Each element is a statement in itself: Metal, wood, concrete – all the materials here are carefully installed; you can see grains and structures, the round holes of the delicate formwork panels – everywhere you can sense the care and attention to detail.

LAR Studio oversaw all design aspects of the project from the shell stage onwards – from the selection of all materials and surfaces to the furnishing of the rooms. This way of working is typical of the interdisciplinary architecture and design studio founded in 2016, whose credo is to think holistically about places, spaces, and properties. Function and beauty are inextricably linked for LAR Studio – indeed, in many cases they depend on each other, according to the Stuttgart-based firm: “A defining feature of our work is the multi-layered examination of material, form, function, and sensory appeal.”

This aspiration is also evident in the Ludwigsburg apartment, whose reduced rooms are characterized by the light gray oak wood of the pur natur floor. Thanks to these real wooden floorboards, the brutalist precision is literally “grounded” on a feeling of warmth – and this is achieved without a single transverse edge: The pur natur floorboards, which are installed in a three-layer structure with a fixed width of 300 millimeters and a thickness of 21 millimeters, extend over the entire room length of nine meters. This means not only a huge effort in transportation and work on site, but also at the production stage. “The combination of this width, room length, and grading was extremely challenging to manufacture; you are pushing the limits of what nature can provide and what is technically feasible,” reveals pur natur Managing Director Steffen Männle. “Here at pur natur, we are always excited about challenging projects, about working with architects to find solutions that translate design approaches into floorboard products meeting the design requirements and our aspiration to bring nature back into homes.”

The fact that the installation of such extraordinary planks went smoothly and precisely is thanks to pur natur’s many years of experience. The premium supplier of plank flooring, which hails from the Black Forest, has been active in the wood industry since the 1980s, while company founder Ruthard Männle has been working with wood since back in the 1960s. His experience and love of the material are still evident in the company today: The Black Forest business in Zell a. H. is the first and only manufacturer in the world to introduce a transparent certificate of origin for its products: All woods are guaranteed to be sustainable, robust, and durable, which is visible on request in the milled geodata that reveal the origin of the processed woods. This enthusiasm for natural wood flooring is expressed in the company name “pur natur”.

In Ludwigsburg, oak wood in pur natur’s Select grade was installed. This is characterized by a very uniform structure with few knots, meaning that special effort was put into the collaboration with LAR Studio, because the selection of the logs involved real “handpicking”, according to the manufacturer: “Length, diameter, wood quality, and wood color of the logs all had to be consistent for the production of the planks. Subsequently, during installation, close attention was paid to the neat execution of joints and shadow gaps.” This craftsmanship and love for the product is what excites LAR Studio: “It is always a particular pleasure when the demand for design and quality of execution is embraced by both sides and you can simply rely on each other.”

To contrast the cool exposed concrete with a warm counterpoint, the wood surface was treated with an individual mixture of natural oil in both natural and white. This makes the red component in the oak wood stand out more. At the same time, a slightly velvety surface is created, which ensures that Ludwigsburg succeeds in walking the tightrope between brutalist aesthetics, minimalist interior design, and a warm feeling in the living space.