AESTUS

Oliver David Krieg is an architecture and wood design researcher living in Vancouver, Canada. Building on almost ten years of experience in digital manufacturing of complex wood structures, Oliver founded odk.design as a platform to explore the dynamics of nature, material and machine.

Oliver’s project, ‘Aestus’, wowed the expert panel of judges with its fusion of sustainability and contemporary design under the theme of ‘Design Inspired by Nature’.

An architecture and wood design researcher, Oliver’s work seeks to find a new statement for contemporary wood design. His winning project is a collection of vases ‘carved’ from hundreds of layers of wood by digital fabrication.

His project merges art and engineering. The bespoke kinematics of a 7-axis industrial robot push the limits of 3D milling and celebrate wood’s sustainability, adaptability, its tactility and visual depth. A brushed stainless steel inset serves as a durable water repository and a wax finish provides natural protection to the wood. The collection’s design captures dynamic movement in the naturally differentiated wooden texture.