Allan Ramsay makes the case for aluminium that reads as timber: modular, Australian-made systems powder-coated and sublimated to look like wood, with the warmth of timber and the longevity of metal, and maintenance he summed up as ‘hose it down’.
A self-described Queenslander with a cheerfully irreverent style, he speaks for Knotwood, founded some sixteen years ago to make modular aluminium systems powder-coated and timber-sublimated to read as wood, with over a hundred staff in Australia plus offices in the UK, USA and New Zealand and everything that reaches a job made locally.
His core pitch for aluminium fits on a single slide, ‘the one thing’ worth taking away: long life, lighter and stronger than the alternatives, no warping, extreme colour stability tested to Florida’s exacting powder-coating standards, non-combustible to AS 1530, and, his refrain, maintenance so low it amounts to hosing it down. It won’t swell, mould or rust; it is scratch-resistant (though, he warned an over-enthusiastic architect, not bulletproof), lightweight and insect-proof.
The products are cladding, battens, slats and decking, self-mating, click-together profiles from 100 to 300 mm, all with concealed fixings and all fully recyclable, free of VOCs and lead. The timber look is sublimated onto the metal, giving the warmth of wood across ceilings and interiors as readily as façades.
Sustainability, he argued, is ‘currency’, and Knotwood’s numbers were specific: VOC- and lead-free, recycling everything down to swarf and floor waste, a 150 kW rooftop solar array generating 200,000 kWh a year, 7.2 million litres of water recycled annually in a closed loop, and biodegradable packaging.
The core proposition, under the jokes, was durability: an Australian-made aluminium system that keeps the appearance of timber and the longevity of metal, with effectively no maintenance across its life.