Wall panel · Munich, Germany
by Formfeld
A relief milled by algorithm from solid maple: its surface scatters sound, and micro-perforation absorbs it, with no absorber behind.
Maple is an even wood, its pores and fibres small and inconspicuous, with a silky sheen of its own. As the pattern needs a quiet ground to read against, the timber for one panel comes from a single tree for a homogeneous colour, and the staves are picked by hand for quarter-sawn grain. A lye and soap finish keeps the wood light.
The milled surface itself scatters incident sound, breaking up the flutter echo that builds between parallel walls. Micro-perforation adds absorption: in the lower speech range, between 250 and 500 Hz, the panel takes up some 90 per cent of the energy reaching it – the region that resists treatment, since most acoustic measures act higher up the spectrum. The figures come from in-situ measurements rather than a laboratory test to ISO 354; the report is available on request.
Formfeld 1 is one of several algorithmic structures in the studio’s range, and the only one with a standardised system of materials, formats and prices. Every structure yields surfaces free of repetition, whatever their extent; each panel carries a pattern of its own, as distinct as a fingerprint.
“Design and function are not traded off against one another here. They are one decision.”
Formfeld develops algorithmically designed surfaces made from natural materials. Every project is based on proprietary algorithms used to plan and fabricate complex, three-dimensional structures precisely; design, digital fabrication and craftsmanship carry equal weight, combining mathematical precision with careful material execution.
It began with a constraint. Designing the Blitz Club in Munich in 2017, in the former congress hall of the Deutsches Museum, almost every wall and ceiling had to be acoustically active, and no product on the market convinced as design. So the constraint became the brief: reliefs generated from algorithms rather than drawn as patterns, in which the acoustic performance follows from the same geometry that gives a room its presence.
Adidas Campus, Herzogenaurach, 2025
A 3.5 × 3.5 m feature wall of some 10,000 facets, each with a funnel-shaped recess. The size of the openings follows the grey values of an iconic image of Adi Dassler, so the portrait assembles itself across the surface when seen from a distance; every facet is unique.
Adidas Customer Brand Center, Herzogenaurach, 2021
A wall of roughly 5.4 × 3.3 m in laminated beech, milled to a deep free-form relief. A backlit perforation at its centre forms the Adidas logo: visible head-on, gone beyond a certain viewing angle.
Deutsches Museum, Munich, 2017
The first Formfeld surfaces, part of the room-acoustic concept of this music club. Before, the main room had a reverberation time of over 2.5 seconds; afterwards it measured below one second across the whole frequency range, with a notably linear response.
Formfeld, Munich
Simon Vorhammer is a computational architect working where design, engineering, material behaviour and manufacturing meet. He founded Formfeld in 2016 and has written the algorithms behind its surfaces ever since; with Prof. Matthias Beckh he also runs beckh & vorhammer, a practice for structural analysis and computational planning. He studied at TU Munich and ETSAM Madrid and worked with Foster + Partners in London, LAVA, and AR-MA in Sydney.
Antonia Frey-Vorhammer is an architect and has been part of Formfeld since 2022. She develops the panels and surfaces together with Simon Vorhammer and is responsible for communication and sales.
