The innovation prize "Architecture and Floorings" has been offered last November by the technical architectural journals AIT, ABIT, and ‚Intelligente Architektur' on the occasion of and in co-operation with the fair Domotex/contractworld 2001. The idea to this prize came from the Association of German Interior Decorators (BDIA). For the first time ever, architects awarded a prize for architecturally innovative floorings, floorcoverings, and floor systems. The two-part competition was a.o. to emphasise the high innovation potential of a product- and/or project-oriented co-operation between architects and industrial companies. The prize was awarded on 14 January 2001 within the scope of the fair Domotex in Hannover.
Jury and reasons for decision
The jury presided by the Stuttgart architect Professor Roland Ostertag consisted of the Nuremberg interior designer and BDIA president Rainer Hilf, the architects Marc Oei and Professor Carlo Weber, both from Stuttgart, and the chairman of the Bundesverband für Trittsicherheit e.V. (Federal Association for Slip Resistance) Volker Stoll, Karlsruhe. 51 competitors from the floorcovering industry participated in the competition - among them manufacturers of parquet, carpet, laminate, tile, and natural stone floorcoverings.
norament® 986 luxor is "a floorcovering intended for a large chain of stores whose design has been developed as job art pursuant to corporate identity specifications", stated the jury in its decision to award the prize to Freudenberg for its rubber floorcoverings in the category "Synthesis - Co-operation Between Architects and Industry ". From the architects' point of view it is "particularly attractive and innovative thanks to the densification of the aggregates achieved through special production techniques".
Variable in Corporate Design
The rubber floocovering given the award has been developed for the Swiss watch company of Swatch AG by the company of Freudenberg Bausysteme KG together with the Swiss interior designer Wolfgang Aeberhard. Swatch AG establishes its branches in department stores, airports or shopping malls based on a so-called "shop in shop" concept. The shops with an area of approximately 15 to 30 square metres are on the one hand to distinguish themselves from the competitors through extraordinary design and on the other hand are to promote effectively the presentation and sale of the watches.
The management of Swatch AG introduced a new concept from mid-2000 onwards - switching from a pop image to a more sophisticated image. For this purpose, the interior designer Aeberhard used the Freudenberg floorcovering 986 luxor. The initial design of this floorcovering is based on examples from nature and is also available in slate and warm earth shades. With regard to the new Swatch concept Aeberhard selected a dark blue matched to the furniture in which five fine granules almost tone-in-tone and as brightening element aluminium glitter have been integrated. Since the new appearance of the Swatch shops also include a lot of light, these aluminium elements have special effects on the dark-blue flooring.
The nora® rubber floorcoverings also maintain their proven properties in the Swatch design which was used in the Swatch stores in 43 countries. They are extremely hard-wearing, slip-resistant, permanently resilient, dimensionally stable, resistant to cigarette burns; they offer outstanding fire-protection properties, high footfall sound absorption, and are easy and economically to clean.