November/December 2016: Partners in Design
Kim Yao
Yao is principal and cofounder of Architecture Research Office, a New York City–based firm specializing in a wide range of commercial, residential, and institutional architecture and interior-design work.
Kelly Smith
The creative director of FilzFelt, Smith— a trained architect— cofounded the company with Traci Roloff in 2008 to bring high-quality German wool felt to the design community. Knoll purchased FilzFelt in 2011.
Architecture Research Office’s 2013 redesign of Knoll’s Midtown showroom not only garnered awards but also won the Manhattan-based firm a new client. ARO’s inspired use of FilzFelt, which included wrapping an entire staircase in the high-quality material, made a product collaboration with the Knoll sister company a perfect fit. “They are architects, and architects are our target audience,” says Kelly Smith, creative director of FilzFelt.
With their shared interest in environmental responsibility, the two parties settled on a brief: find an elegant way to repurpose remnants from FilzFelt’s projects and production runs. The result, ARO Blocks, is a line of sound-absorbing tiles, panels, screens, and baffles.
The modular solutions feature scraps of the company’s Wool Design fabric mounted on 10-millimeter-thick PET acoustic substrate. The 100 percent VOC-free tiles come in four patterns—rectangles, asymmetric angles, and two sizes of triangles—and offer a 0.65 NRC. Dozens of colors are available. “The pieces are flexible and low-tech,” says ARO principal Kim Yao. They’re also a lesson in artful sustainability.
