Up In Flames

It might seem counterintuitive, but fire has actually long been used to preserve wood.

Take, for example, a centuries-old Japanese technique known as Yakisugi, which involves charring timber to create a protective carbon layer, increasing its durability while revealing the depth of its grain.

Traditionally used to weatherproof timber cladding, the process has since been embraced by designers, who are often drawn to the tactile, blackened finish it creates. At least that was the case for design practice Studio Ambre.

Developed in collaboration with Phasis Audio Systems, the studio’s Yakisugi Speakers are carved from solid oak before being subjected to a controlled burn that leaves every piece uniquely marked by flame.

The project encapsulates the philosophy that underpins Studio Ambre’s practice.

Named after amber – the fossilised tree resin formed over millions of year – the studio, led by Liam Wühl, explores the relationship between time, material transformation and perception. Their work questions conventional ideas of beauty by embracing imperfections, traces of use and natural evolution, treating cracks, knots and irregularities not as flaws but as evidence of an object’s life.

“I love the idea of destroying something with fire to strengthen it,” says Wühl, describing the conceptual starting point for the project.

The process itself remains remarkably analogue. Custom wooden chambers inspired by traditional Yakisugi kilns were built to function as vertical chimneys, allowing each speaker to ignite from its base as airflow intensified the flames.

This is the project’s most unpredictable stage. After months spent machining, engineering, and assembling the speakers, the completed objects are handed over to the fire with almost no opportunity for intervention. “It’s the adrenaline part of the project,” says Wühl. “Maybe we open the box, and there’s nothing left.”

While many collectible design pieces incorporate audio components as secondary features, Studio Ambre and Phasis Audio Systems set out to create a genuine high-fidelity speaker capable of meeting audiophile standards.

“I didn’t want it to be a sculpture with speakers on it,” says Wuhl’s collaborator and founder of Phasis Audio, Luca Scalea. “I wanted it to be a real hi-fi speaker.”

Achieving that proved far from straightforward. Burning timber causes it to warp, crack and move unpredictably –qualities fundamentally at odds with the precisely controlled internal volumes required for accurate sound reproduction. Early prototypes exposed those tensions, prompting the team to develop a concealed aluminium enclosure that isolates the acoustic chamber from the charred oak’s movement.

The fragile carbonised surface is then stabilised using a specially developed resin mixture that preserves its tactile texture while reinforcing its structural integrity. The complexity remains almost entirely invisible. Viewed from the outside, the speakers appear as monolithic blocks of blackened oak punctuated only by their drivers, quietly disguising the sophisticated engineering within.

As a final detail, the same boxes used to burn the speakers are then repurposed as packaging, meaning the customer has a visible reminder of the process.

The result is an object that exists comfortably between collectible design and functional audio equipment, where neither aesthetics nor performance has been compromised. As Wühl describes it, “the design is driven by the sound, and the sound is driven by the design.”

At a time when manufacturing increasingly strives for absolute precision and consistency, Studio Ambre embraces the opposite. Every burn leaves different marks, every crack tells a different story and every speaker emerges with its own distinct character.

“I’m always trying to create something new,” Wühl says. “There are hundreds of thousands of products already existing, so I have to find the concept first.”