PRESS is a door handle made of densified wood - a process that turns soft wood into a hard and durable material.

PRESS started as a research for an application of an experimental technique where a piece of soft wood (like pine) is compressed in a mould and heated with steam. The structure of the wood changes and turns into a kind of strong polymer, but still keeps the line patterns of the wood. Developed with the EPFL+ECAL Lab, Switzerland

The result is a warm material, comfortable in the hand - which is good for a door handle - but also much more resistant than normal hard wood.