Even better than the real thing: Amtico

For architects and interior designers, flooring design presents a special kind of challenge because choosing certain finishes and materials has aesthetic as well as functional consequences. Numerous factors are at play: how do the colour and texture fit with the overall ambience of an interior? How robust does the floor need to be to withstand years of heavy use?

For many applications, classic parquet is unquestionably an excellent choice, with its warm, natural wood tones and traditional laying patterns, or perhaps real stone flooring. But when it comes to finding a solution for heavy traffic areas, where large numbers of people circulate, perhaps dance, or where a whole tray of drinks might come falling down – that’s when alternatives need to be considered.

The British manufacturer Amtico has long been a specialist in LVT flooring – luxury vinyl tiles whose look and feel is very close to natural materials, but which are more resilient than wood or marble, for example. All Amtico product families are designed in such a way as to visually convey the impression of natural colours, surfaces and grains – appearing deceptively real in the best sense of the word.

In the field of art, this illusionistic effect is referred to as trompe l’oeil, which was particularly popular in Renaissance painting. Artists employed this technique to create special depth effects and spatial impressions on what was actually a smooth two-dimensional surface. Some renderings could only be made out from a certain perspective. Of course, this principle is not feasible when it comes to floors – because they need to look convincing from every angle.

In order for the illusion to work, Amtico does not rely on mere photorealistic reproduction, i.e. the printing of vinyl surfaces. Instead, the peculiarities of a particular type of wood with its irregularities, such as knotholes, are made believable to the eye by means of precisely matched indentations – which remain fully visible from every perspective.

Even the finest grain patterns of their real-life counterparts can be found in Amtico floors, ensuring close optical proximity to the original. Information sheets for each product provide planners with precise details on important aspects such as fire, slip and scuff resistance or noise transmission during use. Incidentally, if choosing a version with a sound reduction backing layer, the impact sound insulation level is even further enhanced.

For the new Form Collection, Amtico’s in-house designers have studied the subtle characteristics of natural wood and stone, examining particular grains and material-specific signs of weathering to create a vinyl range that is as close to nature as possible. The collection includes 30 wood designs and six stone designs. In addition, textured surface structures exist in three variants: Artisan Emboss, Natural Wood Grain Emboss and Ceramic Emboss.

In addition to the fine surface textures, it is important that the luxury vinyl tiles in the Form series (0.7 mm wear layer) can also be used for certain familiar laying patterns from the world of traditional floor design. Amtico calls them: Parquet Small, Parquet Large, Basket Weave, Hex and Pavestone.

A visit to the manufacturer’s website provides visual illustrations and a wealth of information on the properties of the individual product lines, which is certainly helpful in the decision-making process. But as the choice of flooring often comes down to the subtle details, Amtico offers the option of ordering samples from the Form Collection, allowing you to examine and explore the look and feel of the products up close.

In addition, individualised applications can also be digitally simulated on the Amtico website, showing how a Form variant would look in a particular arrangement of tiles or wood panels in a specific space. For instance, the visualisation tool allows you to upload a photo of the given room and generate a vivid first impression of the space with the flooring scheme in question.

With a diverse range of various stone and wood designs, the Form Collection offers a contemporary, rustic alternative in floor design. It also comes with a 12-year guarantee. If you are an architect or planner who appreciates the aesthetic of staying ‘down to earth’, you will surely discover a wide array of aspects that make Form the right choice for your project.

© Architonic