“CREATE’N’CONNECT” – the new lead theme for DOMOTEX 2019 – shines a spotlight on the megatrend of connectivity, with particular emphasis on floors, including the myriad design options offered by them. Floors form the basis of the rooms in which we live and work, and preparations for the coming floor coverings show (11–14 January 2019) are already in full swing. While many exhibitors are hard at work optimizing the final details of their latest products, dedicated university teams are working on visionary concepts which will be on display at DOMOTEX 2019, at the special “Framing Trends” showcase in Hall 9. This dedicated display will provide key ideas and inspiration for the floors of the future. Here, flooring exhibitors and companies will demonstrate their creative ideas in connection with the lead theme. Featuring a series of unique presentations and product presentations, the “Framing Trends” showcase will serve as a magnet for visitors and manufacturers alike. As a global communications platform, DOMOTEX allows its exhibitors to network with trend-oriented architects, interior designers and designers in the spirit of “CREATE’N’CONNECT,” resulting in a variety of creative collaborations, as detailed in the following:

The floor as a connective interior design element

The innovative products created by DOMOTEX exhibitors are present in interior design projects all over the world, with renowned international architects and interior designers taking wooden floors, carpet tiles and handmade carpets and using them to create lifestyle-oriented rooms in which floor design becomes the connecting element of an overall interior design concept.

Whether at the Canadian Studio Munge, the Chicago Design Network or Snøhetta from Norway: Architects and interior designers are integrating floor designs into their overall creative concept to give interiors that final touch to produce a harmonious whole. Carpets and parquet flooring from the DOMOTEX exhibitors Creative Matters, Fletco and Townfield Flooring are an important component of these trendsetting room presentations – from a hotel lobby in Toronto and offices in Chicago to a bar high above the rooftops of Oslo.

DOMOTEX exhibitors get connected for joint creative interior projects

Canada’s Studio Munge has been part of a successful creative partnership with Creative Matters for many years, with numerous joint projects that include furnishing the lobby of the newly reopened Anndore House boutique hotel in downtown Toronto, which has an interior design characterized by Art Déco stylistic elements. The pattern and color of the rugged, handmade carpets consisting of 100% New Zealand wool correspond to the furnishing and wall design to form a unified creative whole. Creative teams from both companies developed the harmonious color gradient and attractive texture of the carpets, whose loops merge into pile cut. An octagonal carpet surrounds the reception table that is centrally located in the lobby. A second leads visually and functionally from the elevator vestibule to the lobby bar. Both are inlaid into the dark terrazzo floor and “tie the entrance’s bold forms into a single holistic statement,” says Alessandro Munge, founder of Studio Munge.

The interior designers at Chicago Design Network used Fletco carpet tiles to create connecting zones at the headquarters of HEARN, the well-known Chicago-based real estate company. HEARN, which acquired the office component of the mixed-use John Hancock building, commissioned the team to create a prestigious and contemporary workplace which would adequately reflect the building’s world-class status. Together with interior designer Alessandra Branca, they chose the “Zenith” carpet from Fletco, which combines a bold look with durability and quality, because in heavily frequented areas such as corridors, the floor covering must be highly durable. In the headquarters’ cozy lounge, the broad striped carpet with its gray, ocher and beige colors visually ties into the textile surfaces of the bar stools and upholstered furniture.

The geometric pattern blends into the overall design, while simultaneously enlivening it. “The great challenge in owning a classic in business,” explains Steve Hearn, President and CEO of HEARN, “is to ensure it maintains its status as a profit center, and never becomes a non-performing museum piece.”

The Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta used hexagonal parquet elements from Townfield Flooring to redesign the Summit Bar on the 21st floor of the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel in Oslo. The color of the natural, vividly grained American Walnut wood blends harmoniously with the color and materials of the couches and cushions in the floor-hugging seating landscape. Toward the window façade, the floor is raised to offer the best possible view of the city from any seat. The interior designers chose the “Hexagon 580” program due to its strong graphic appeal and the walnut wood’s “warm characteristics”, said Project Manager Nina Bjerve Andresen, adding that the “centered shape of the non-directional parquet” also made it ideal.

Interior projects like these demonstrate the importance of flooring within the context of holistic concepts in which materials, textures and colors are all connected. At the same time, they provide a vibrant illustration of the lead theme “CREATE’N’CONNECT”. Because the floor is a design element, it inspires us, provides us with orientation – and connects us.