Your Floor: Domotex 2018

The floor’s moving. Don’t worry. You’re not in any danger. It’s not an earth tremor or some side-effect of a late, alcohol-fuelled night. Rather, the flooring industry is en marche.

That most fundamental of spatial elements that serves to underpin one’s perception, one’s experience of interior-architectural space – the floor – is standing up to be counted. As consumers across every sector and in every segment – from FMCG to luxury brands – start to explore the ever-increasing, technology-driven possibilities of individualisation and customisation in the products they purchase (and, indeed, rapidly come to expect this), so the many actors within the global flooring trade are responding to this development. Difference is becoming standard, as it were, and that includes the surfaces we walk on.

The clue is in the name
Domotex, the foremost international trade fair for the floor coverings, is preparing the ground for the first major global showcase of premium, bespoke flooring solutions. Exceeding its traditional function as an industry hub, the next edition of Domotex – taking place at Hanover’s Deutsche Messe from 12 to 15 January – will take on the added-value role of trend barometer and inspiration source with the launch of its first keynote theme – Unique Youniverse.

As customers seek more and more to shape their own identity in the material world around them, to have the spaces they inhabit reflect their own selves in the most authentic way possible, so the opportunity (and the challenge) is there for flooring manufacturers to enable them to do this. “It’s a topic that’s only going to become more significant,” says high-end-rug designer and producer Hossein Rezvani. “Against a background of growing uniformity, customised products will become central. At present, customised orders account for over half our orders. Dealers can adapt to specific markets, respond to local trends and fulfil market demands.”

Unique Youniverse invites exhibiting companies to set out in the most engaging and convincing way possible those products and services of theirs that embrace this burgeoning trend towards individualisation, and thanks to its clearly defined focus, to maximise their impact with visitors – chief among them architects, planners and other trend-conscious professionals.

The floor is yours
On the back of a new exhibition layout and hall restructuring for Domotex, which sees product segments brought together in special display areas, furnishing visitors with a more effective market overview, next January will see the arrival of its new Framing Trends area at the fair. Think of it as immersive experience and ideas exchange, rather than conventional product presentation. Located in a rethought Hall 9, the hub for brand- and lifestyle-oriented companies across all product categories, Framing Trends will comprise four distinct modules.

“Flooring Spaces”, curated by a panel of experts headed up by internationally renowned architect Peter Ippolito, will offer exhibiting companies of the floor coverings industry – in the spirit of customisation culture – the opportunity themselves to co-create a special environment that addresses the various meanings of individualisation. The further three modules – “Living Spaces” (where exhibitors can partner up with interior-design and lifestyle companies to create shared spaces), “NuThinkers” (giving students, young designers and start-ups a forum to express their ideas), and “Art and Interaction” (a showcase for tactile and emotive art and design installations that address the fair’s main theme) – complete the picture.

Be the starting point for brands taking part in this initiative design, art, technology or science – expressed either in the form of unique flooring settings, specially created interior-architectural installations or ideas workshops – the emphasis is squarely on inspiration and emotional connection. Taking to the floor, so to speak, are also experts and opinion-makers with something to say; a series of talks and panel discussions involving architects, designers, artists and trend-forecasters, will make for stimulating debate on relevant topics and social trends.

Walk on by
The space-defining quality of bespoke flooring solutions that are considered as part of a total, uncompromised interior-architectural concept are clearly evidenced in a raft of recently completed projects internationally and across a diverse range of building types. From Stockholm, where Geco Architects used Bolon’s “Bolon by You” customisation service to create a strikingly geometric and strongly chromatic flooring concept for film-production company Svensk Filmindustri, to London, which saw architectural grandee John Pawson specify the size, the grain and the finish of the new landmark Design Museum’s expressive oak flooring from Dinesen – bespoke means business.

When it came to the Royal Swedish National Opera fitting out its recording studio, the client responded to Kymo’s slogan to ‘Go on and create’ by using the manufacturer’s individualisation service, “The Atelier”. The result is a custom-sized, hand-made, thick-pile carpet with superior acoustic qualities, swallowing sound rather than allowing unwanted noise to reverberate.

From sound management to glorious silence. The recently completed conversion and extension of a listed Benedictine abbey in Sieburg, Germany, into a hotel and conference centre by architectural office msm meyer schmitz-morkramer required a bespoke solution for the project’s floor surface, given the historic importance of the building. Manufacturer Carpet Concept created a unique new hue for the specially commissioned flooring – Michaelsberg Beige – to dovetail with the colour scheme the architects had developed. Carpet, natural stone and wood – they all speak the same chromatic language here.

Dovetailing, too, at tile manufacturer Mosa’s custom-designed flooring for the new Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis hospital in Delft, Netherlands. Working with EGM architecten, who wanted to translate a pixellated image of Vermeer’s iconic painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, into an expansive and abstract-expressive floorscape, the company delivered a variety of custom-sized and -shaped elements for a truly one-off project.

Smaller in scale, meanwhile, but no less intriguing is bespoke specialist De Castelli’s tessellated metal flooring for their Milan flagship store. God is in the detail here: tiny individual mosaic elements, varying in hue and finish, come together to create an exclusive, space-shaping surface.

Flooring is in most definitely in flux. Visit Domotex next January to discover just how far it’s going.

© Architonic

At the "Flooring Spaces" in Hall 9, manufacturers have the opportunity to present themselves to a large audience as trendsetters.

Apply by July 20, 2017 with a custom creative concept and earn the chance to secure one of 24 open places at Domotex 2018.