MEDIA

Axolotl is proud to have been featured in over 500 magazines, radio and television as well as the recipients of more than 40 awards, including five international design awards.

A selection of the most current articles is below including a 20th anniversary celebratory article by Axolotl’s co-founder and Managing Director, Kris Torma.

Australian Financial Review

‘Right now it’s greys and silvers … nickel, zinc, pewter,” says Kris Torma. “Brass and copper go in and out of favour – they always come back. But bronze … well, bronze is forever.”

Torma and his brother know a little about trends. Back in 1995, their company, Axolotl, pioneered a technique for applying semi-precious metals to any surface, any size, any shape.

Because it is real metal, but only 0.5mm thick, an Axolotl surface can be polished, etched, combined with other materials and aged in days, not decades. Although it looks grand, it’s relatively cost-effective.

So it allows you to bestow the gravitas of Renaissance bronze on ordinary garage doors, or wrap a standard kitchen in the warm lustre of copper. The applications are immense, from trophies to whole buildings, and the company has won more than 40 awards for its work over its 25 years.

Axolotl grew out of a part-time picture framing business the Tormas had while working in other fields – Kris in cinematography and Kim in horticulture. Through trial and error they invented a way to achieve a metal look and feel on frames before testing their technique on entrance doors.

“People didn’t do metal doors before us,” says Kris, chatting in Axolotl’s office-showroom-factory in a southern Sydney industrial park. “They were too heavy, too hard to work with, too expensive.”

Axolotl still does 100 doors a year, ranging in price from $5000 to $60,000 plus, depending on size and complexity.

“This one,” he says, pointing to a handsome specimen, “was 3D-printed then bronze-coated, polished and aged. That one next to it was sandblasted first, then coated in aluminium.”

Hundreds of metal samples are displayed around the room like album covers in racks and on shelves. Some differences are obvious – colours from light to dark, textures rough to mirror-smooth. Others are incredibly subtle: there are, for example, 40 shades of rust.

“Actually,” says Kris, “it’s infinite.”

There are screens cut in Florence Broadhurst patterns and a stunning black marble coffee table incised with gleaming brass penstrokes. It’s by Spanish creative Jamie Hayon, one of the artists Axolotl paired up with for last year’s Easel Project (co-ordinated by Australian designers Adam Cornish and Marcus Piper).

Downstairs on the factory floor are more examples of Axolotl ingenuity: a scale model of a historic building that will become a touch-map for the blind; tubes of water inserted into lolly-coloured glass; a Mondrian-inspired glass door with graphite outlines awaiting colour panels.

Sydney’s CBD contains a fair representation of Axolotl’s work, from the glossy interiors of the Paspaley store and the lobby of the Westin hotel to the refurbished bronze doors, elevators and teller counters of Westpac’s old headquarters. For Melbourne’s Tiffany store, Axolotl reimagined the brand’s famous wheat leaf motif in silver, embedding it in jewel-like starphire glass.

The Tormas’ interest is in transforming materials, says Kris, “re-engineering them to take on new properties … lighter in weight, more flexible in form, or stronger than the original”.

Architecture firm Woods Bagot approached the brothers to see if they could make a terracotta façade for a project they were undertaking in Wollongong, the Nan Tien Institute. To make it out of solid ceramic would weaken the structure and add enormous weight. Axolotl found a way to apply a terracotta surface to aluminium blades, resulting in an earthy, surprising and sophisticated finish.

“We love nothing more than a brief that has no available solution, so we can create one,” Kris says.

Artist Jade Oakley is also at the factory, having a word with one of the designers (there are 25 employees on site as well as Kris’ dog and an office cat named Beatnik).

Oakley came to Axolotl in 2017, with an ambitious idea for a memorial wall at Harbord RSL Club: six giant copper poppies to float over a reflecting pool of water with a 35 square metre bronze wall behind, perforated by a sea of tiny lights. Oh, and the poppies needed to sway in the breeze.

From Oakley’s “little maquette made of cardboard and sticky tape”, Axolotl worked out the engineering specifications and co-ordinated the trades and processes involved in the installation.

It’s more than technical support that Axolotl offers Oakley. “I love bouncing ideas off people, and this place is one of my favourite trampolines,” she says.

Coming up for Axolotl – if it gets the go-ahead – are 25 shopfronts in 25 materials for Norman Foster’s Sydney Place project in the CBD. There will be more art, more experiments, more new materials. There will be trips, eventually, to the factories they have in the UK, Hong Kong, China, India and the US.

A blend of creative thinking and business management differentiates Axolotl from its competitors, and Kris says it springs in part from their upbringing.

“Our father was a sculptor and photographer and our mother was a ceramicist. We went to a Steiner school and many of our school friends went on to work in creative industries.

“Being entrepreneurial is probably also a family thing, as our father always worked in his own photographic business and we never saw ourselves in traditional desk jobs working for someone else.”

For Kris, constant innovation is not just a core part of the business, but stimulates the brothers to keep going. “We’re still developing new surfaces and designs on a regular basis, which is an incredibly creative outlet,” he says.

“Its been quite an exciting ride.”

INSIDE 94: PRACTICE

Text: Gillian Serisier

The brain-child of brothers Kris and Kim Torma, Axolotl, or as it was known then, Axolotl Metal Finishes, has come a long way since it first started transforming surfaces with lustrous layers of semi precious metal in 1995.

Now in its 21st year Axolotl has burgeoned into an international practice with factories operating in the UK, China, Hong Kong, and India. Closer to home a 1,100sqm factory and showroom provides the company headquarters in Matraville Sydney.

Interestingly, though a robust program of research and development went into Axolotl before they started their business, neither saw it as their primary career path. (Kris was a highly regarded and successful art director working in film and television while Kim was equally well regarded in his field of horticulture, while not hand building a mud-brick adobe house in Broke).

“The launch of Axolotl itself ended up being a pivotal moment in our business lives. It began almost as an experiment and we thought it would just be part time alongside our existing careers. However the reaction received for our metals was quite phenomenal and ultimately, we had to make the choice between pursuing separate careers or pursuing Axolotl” says Kris. But then they are no normal dabblers; rather, they are possibly the most driven and innovative pair working with surface technology today. And it is this aspect that has seen them steadily expand their offering from the original metal finishes, to concrete, glass and a soon to be launched paint range.

What makes them exceptional is a rare combination of a curious mind, excellent business sense and fearless experimentation: “Each product since inception has centred around using common materials and manufacturing processes in ways that really push the limits and haven’t been seen before. Our business is based on experimentation and not every venture eventuates – but the successes are truly bespoke” says Kris.

This coupled with an inherent ability to design, manifests as a unique formula of layered expertise. Where most would conquer a material simply by creating it, Axolotl see this as the starting point for evolution and innovation. The fact that they have the ability to work artistically with their own materials works in two ways, in that they are able to show application possibilities immediately, while having the requisite skills to deliver their client’s vision. Take their glass range for example, which they started manufacturing in 2005. “Glass was a key turning point for the business and seemed a natural progression of the Axolotl offer. Working with two materials gave us the opportunity to target the same clientele with a broader scope of materials and infinitely more design possibilities” says Kris. Not resting on their laurels, Axolotl have spent the intervening years innovating and developing glass processes that are recognised as unique in the world. In 2012, for example Axolotl Concrete and LINK were voted ‘Material of Excellence’ and selected for inclusion into the material archive by New York’s prestigious ‘Material ConneXion Resource Library’. And while each of their products is consistently recognised with awards, their most recent accolades include the 2015 ADEX Awards Platinum Award for Design Excellence’ for Axolotl Concrete and ‘Gold Award For Design Excellence’ for Axolotl Terracotta.

Key to the success of the product is the small amount of material needed to create a surface. Axolotl Concrete for example, as a surface finish uses 1.5% of the raw materials needed for a square meter of solid concrete (they are currently creating concrete blocks for a luxury yacht interior!). Metal finishes also use far less material and have the additional bonus of being 100% recycled. As such, while art projects have always been part of the Axolotl portfolio, it was not until they were invited to tender for a 520sqm feature wall for Hong Kong Airport in 2013 that they recognised both their talent and expertise to create and manage large-scale public art projects. Required to present a 6 x 6m section of art wall in Hong Kong as part of a competitive pitch against two other designs, the project used custom designed Axolotl glass and their inaugural use of computer synchronised lighting. “Whilst it was disappointing that we didn’t win, as the art piece was truly beautiful, it gave us the impetus to start Axolotl Art Projects. AAP now accounts for a large proportion of our work and really complements our core business” says Kris adding that the piece they created for artist Don Salisbury was recently awarded the 2015 Luminaire Design Award of Excellence for Light Sculpture and Installation.

At 20 plus years they could be forgiven a rest, but in true Axolotl form the showroom is brimming with new ideas and challenges to the way they use materials. Furniture, ceramics, art works, a motor cycle restoration, paint, concrete, glass and terracotta sit and merge with the original metal finishes in myriad incarnations, which, if the Tormas can find a way to do it (ie if it’s at all possible), will include paper by the end of the year. They are in fact an amazing Australian design manufacturing story and truly deserve all accolades.

Habitus Living Issue #29

Addicted To Innovation

After 20 years in business, the key to Axolotl’s success has emerged – a knack for innovation and diversity in design.

When brothers Kris and Kim Torma launched a metal finishes business from a one-car garage space in Redfern in 1995, they probably didn’t envision an art project, a bed & breakfast and a furniture brand – in addition to their core product – 20 years down the track.

Starting out with just four metal samples, Axolotl now offer hundreds of finishes, including glass, concrete, sheet metals, timber and terracotta, as well as metal inlays into glass.

The brothers have always been open to exploration in their business, “If we see a brief that isn’t yet met, we’ll invent a solution.” Says Kris. “Our main interest is in evolving the condition and preconceptions of common materials, re-engineering them to have new features such as being lighter in weight, or even combining two diverse materials together.”

The willingness to adventure into unchartered design waters is not just a business strategy, but also a personal interest, making their ‘job’ more of a lifelong education. “Learning and exploring new materials and processes is what interests us. We have fun experimenting and developing our products – each piece and project is unique, and the sum of this is presented in our vast product range today,” he says.

The product lends itself to an array of applications – from facades and doors to furniture, finishes, flooring, cabinetry and sculpture. The initial design process involved cold applying metal to other elements: now this is just one of the many processes the company has developed – and won coveted product innovation awards with.

And if the product development was not enough, Kris and Kim also expanded laterally, introducing the Axolotl House, a mud brick adobe residence in the Hunter Valley, which operates as a B&B. Handmade by Kim. “The environmental design, and the beautiful spaces built reflect both our personal and professional interests and values,” says Kris. “It was opened to the public to invite people of like minds to appreciate the spaces and scenery.” As well as this venture, the brothers have also launched Anomaly, named because each piece in the range is hand-crafted which by its very nature means there are anomalies. “We see this as a positive thing that shows the product is unique and isn’t mass produced.” Kris explains, whilst also being a fully Australian furniture brand designed and manufactured locally.

The diverse branches of the business reflect an adventurous spirit, and if, as Steven Hawking said, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Axolotl’s IQ is off the charts.

Innovative Household

At Australian company Axolotl, brothers Kris and Kim Torma have developed a seemingly impossible marriage – combining bespoke design with cutting-edge technology and, in the process, inspired designers and architects around the world with their must-have metal, glass and concrete products.

Tiffany & Co was so impressed with Australian metal, glass and concrete designer wunderkinds, Axolotl, that the internationally-renowned jeweller asked the company to craft a stunning entry facade for their new flagship store in Melbourne.

The result – a glowing, translucent sapphire glass border which surrounds an internal frit formed glass feature over two levels and mirrored balustrading, announces Axolotl has arrived, putting its stamp on sophistication in design and décor.

Axolotl has become the darling of designers and those craving greater levels of craftsmanship in their homes and workspaces.

Catering to our increasing desire to reflect our individuality and embrace cutting-edge materials, Axolotl has grown in only 16 years from inspiration to an operation employing 16 full-time staff and an international brand with licensees worldwide in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The company was started by brothers Kris and Kim Torma, after years of research and development in metal technologies, as a small operation run out of a warehouse in the backstreets of Sydney’s Redfern in 1995.

Kris’s background prior to being at the helm of the Axolotl juggernaut as Managing Director, was in film and television set design and cinematography. His design background and experience allowed him to identify an untapped niche in the market – a need for solid metal aesthetic without the associated restrictions such as weight, cost and availability.

Collaborating with brother and artist Kim as Creative Director, who brought his practical knowledge, hands-on experience and creative drive to the table, Axolotl was born.

The name “Axolotl” was chosen, according to Kris, as “we wanted the name and brand to be able to stand alone. “We also wanted the company name to be free from the constraints of being a one product company as we knew the company had the potential to evolve to encompass other innovative products and ventures, which it has with glass and concrete.”

Using the proprietary technology, Axolotl has developed techniques which enable designers to fuse metal into glass, concrete into glass and metal into concrete.

“In fact, all three surfaces can now be used together to create virtually anything at all,” says Kris.

Kris believes that metal is a natural element and sits perfectly incorporated into Australian residential design “whether it be a façade of richly-coloured Axolotl orange rust or aged copper, bronze or zinc.

“Australia has an incredibly harsh climate. It is testament to the durability of Axolotl products that after 16 years in our harsh environment, Axolotl coatings look as good today as they did when they first came out of the factory.”

Kris and Kim can proudly describe their work as “bespoke”: “Everything we do is completely custom-made and hand-finished; we don’t stock any off the shelf products,” says Kris. “As metal is a natural element, it is unpredictable and can react in completely different ways from one day to the next. I think that is where the beauty lies in our finishes, the idea that no two Axolotl finishes are never completely identical.

“Every job that is undertaken is a true one-off, from creating a copper front entrance door to bronze screens, carved glass balustrades and concrete furniture.”

Inspiration comes from many places, says Kris – and some of Australia’s most talented artists, architects and interior designers often come to Axolotl with their idea of what they want to create – “We find a way to make it happen”.

Axolotl’s work can be seen on feature walls, garage doors, front doors, gates, in kitchens, bathrooms, on stairs and counters.

Some well-known locations include Sydney International Airport which features Axolotl Metal on shopfronts throughout and the Sydney Opera House with feature pieces in the prestigious Guillame at Bennelong restaurant

Kris’s favourite works

“Rouse Hill Food Court in the new Rouse Hill development is a favourite – designed by Philip Chia, it features over 1,000 square metres of rusted screens, beams and door frames. The same design was even incorporated into the glass. It was a very brave design and it works wonderfully.

“The sculptural work we produce is also a favourite – Artists including Mark McClelland (winner Sculpture by the Sea in 2008 using Axolotl bronze), Jane Cavanough always pushes the boundaries with our products and Janet Laurence’s work is just exquisite.”

Tiffany’s flagship store was created after collaboration with New York architects and designers. Five totally custom-made works of art in glass also feature in the store.

“We’re currently working on totally new designs for their new shop in Sydney and have been asked to produce work for one of their stores in Mexico City,” Kris proudly says.

Audrey Hepburn would also be proud.

JUDY FRIEDLANDER