Nytt Golv

Nytt Golv-I huvudet på en designstjarna

Nytt Golv · Portraits & interviews · 2 pages

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New Floors

FOR PRIVATE AND PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTS

Flooring – an important part of the interior

Bamboo is the oak of the 2000s

Interest in textile floors is growing. Meet textile designer Gunilla Lagerhem Ullberg on page 16

THE FLOORING GUIDE — Get inspired and get professional tips. Read more on page 4

Included as a supplement in Di September 2006 Provisa

Whiteroom

Inside the head of a design star

Soft in the shoe store but durable and trendy at the nightclub. Every environment demands its own floor. Designer Alexander Lervik knows this, having decorated many of the nightclubs and stores around Stureplan in Stockholm.

By Susanne Bengtsson

Floors in public environments suffer significantly more wear than floors at home, which places higher demands on durability. One of the most exposed environments is bars and nightclubs, where floors must withstand sharp stiletto heels and spilled drinks left for a long time that soak the floors.

Marble, stone, and clinker tiles are among the most durable flooring materials, according to Alexander Lervik, who has Stockholm clubs Spy Bar, Sturecompagniet, and Whiteroom on his list of achievements. Since the smoking ban was introduced in venues last year, however, stone floors have met strong competition from both textile floors and plastic floors.

— Since the smoking ban was introduced, we have been able to start using completely different materials. Plastic floors are durable as long as they are not exposed to cigarettes that leave burn marks, says Alexander Lervik, who thinks plastic is both durable and easy to clean.

The trend factor is important

Durability and maintenance are two important factors when choosing flooring, but the trend factor is at least as important. It is about standing out.

— The interior decor of a nightclub has a short lifespan, usually one to three years, and then you can be more extreme and play with trends and materials, says Alexander Lervik.

The secret club V at Stureplan, for example, has received a lot of attention for its glass dance floor decorated with 50,000 crystals and LEDs.

— Glass may not be the ultimate material for a dance floor because it scratches easily, but the striking dance floor elevated the entire venue. For the guests, visiting the club should be an experience.

At the dance restaurant Flustret in Uppsala, which Alexander Lervik designed and which opens its doors on September 29, he has mixed textile, stone, and wood on the floor.

— The dance floor itself, on the other hand, consists of real wood. Nothing else will do for a crowd with a genuine interest in dancing.

The floor highlights the product When Alexander Lervik designed Rizzo's shoe stores and NK's shoe departments, he chose to combine different types of flooring materials to create effects. Mixing materials gives an exclusive feel. Another thing to keep in mind is that different floors require different cleaning methods.

At NK, marble adorns the walkways, while the floors along the shoe displays consist of textile carpets.

— Soft floors are good because they protect the soles when customers try on shoes, says Alexander.

The color choice at NK fell on green because they wanted to find a calm color that would not clash with the colors of the shoes being tried on the carpet.

— It is important that the floor and the interior highlight the products. It is not the interior itself that should be seen. For the interior design store Establish at Stureplan, we chose a white plastic floor because the furniture showed up so well against the light floor. It gave a fresh impression.

Dark wood floors are hot

Flooring in stores has a lifespan of around five years, which is longer than for nightclub floors, but shorter than in office environments. Alexander Lervik thinks the interior design industry has moved closer to the fashion industry in that trends have an increasingly short lifespan.

— Even in home environments, we have become more susceptible to trends. We no longer think that floors, wallpaper, and other interior decor should last for 30 years. We want to renew ourselves often. It is probably only in kitchens and bathrooms that we are more cautious, because more money is involved there.

Materials that feel hot right now are dark wood floors, patterned rugs in bold colors, and wall-to-wall carpeting that is not laid edge-to-edge but about a decimeter out from the baseboards, according to Alexander Lervik. Glass and plastic are also trendy.

The "nightclub mindset" seems to be catching on with home DIYers as well.

Dare to be more trendy for the moment, Alexander Lervik advises.

GBR's flooring warranty By hiring a floor layer who is a member of Golvbranschen, you receive a guarantee that the work will be properly executed. Golvbranschen's Floor Warranty means that the consumer has a one-year warranty for defects and faults in work performed and material supplied. In addition, Golvbranschen has a guarantee fund that protects the consumer up to two price base amounts, which for the year 2008 corresponds to 79,400 kronor. For more information and warranty terms — visit www.golvbranschen.se where you will also find all floor layers affiliated with Golvbranschen.

Golvbranschen, together with its member companies, has developed a unique system for eco-cycle labeling of floors.

By Anna Flemmert

The process involves suppliers registering their products in a database where each product is assigned a specific number.

— The number is structured in a similar way to the digits in a barcode, where the number code indicates the product's origin, says Henrik Sjölin at Golvbranschen.

Each time a supplier registers a new product or updates an existing one, a new number is created. In this way, every product registered in the system is traceable for all time. In Sweden, an Authorized Flooring Contractor can install floors that are eco-cycle labeled.

During eco-cycle labeling, a specification of the floor surfaces is prepared, and the floor layer creates small, age-resistant label tags for them. This specification contains everything the property owner needs to know about the floor when it is later torn out and recycled. The person removing the floor can thus obtain all information about what the floor contains, which means the waste can be treated in an environmentally sound manner.

English translation of the original article. Text read from the scanned original; small transcription errors may occur.