A gemstone made from fine wood

"The struggle to reconcile aesthetic and functional details is not always easy," Katrin and Thomas Mainzer tell us on their website. She is an architect and he is a carpenter. They both understand what a challenge it can be to find a way of accommodating every component of the creative process – yet at the same time, they have shown that it can be done. And the results are amazing! This duo, who are not only a couple in their private lives but also set up a company together, MZER, have created a home of their own that reflects all the facets involved in the art of design and composition. Like a jewel. A black jewel. This is in fact the name that the Mainzer family have chosen for their treasure – on account of its dark glazed wooden facade.

Contrasts

For the striking exterior skin of the building, brushed larch boards in various different lengths and widths were mounted vertically in an almost random fashion. After being primed with ADLER Pullex Imprägnier-Grund they were finished with ADLER Pullex Plus-Lasur in the colour NCS 9000 N. Now, after a number of years, the facade seems to shimmer between an intense black and an elegant greyish black, depending on the way the light falls. The same shade was also used for the window reveals and the coated aluminium shells of the Josko windows. In the interior too, the windows on the top floor, made from brushed spruce, have also been finished in black – of course using a coating system by ADLER that was specially developed and produced for Josko. In sharp contrast to the dark windows, the white painted interior doors, also created by Josko and ADLER, fit in flush to the walls, without any frames.

Oak

On the ground floor, a further contrast of colours and materials awaits us: brushed, oiled oak has been used for the front door, for a room-high interior door and for the windows – all of them likewise by Josko, for whom MZER acts as sales partner in the region. Here too, ADLER supplied a perfectly matched version of primer and topcoat. Wood and black are the connecting elements between the two floors, in the form of a staircase made of solid coral oak with wonderful golden veins, and the banister, which leads delicately up to a little gallery.

Clarity

The well considered design and clear use of lines are finished off by countless high-quality items of built-in furniture, which Thomas Mainzer and his team produced in their own workshops: wall units and storage solutions, coated with PUR-Ecofill White, Pigmopur in White and PUR-Antiscratch HQ. And the kitchen, which is integrated into the property, including a special piece of furniture for the built-in appliances, with a silver-reflecting, deep black glass surface, finished with a special glass coating (Pigmopur RAL 9005 with Pigmofix G). In view of the impressive, atmospheric combination of colours and materials, it's no wonder that Katrin and Thomas Mainzer are always happy to show customers around their private residence – as an impressive example of the way design and execution can be brought together to create a unique piece of jewellery!