Materials

10 July is the closing date for entries for the GERMAN DESIGN AWARDS 2021, which, for the first time, also features a prize aimed at young architectural offices and design studios in a new category.

With its creative new fabric and wallpaper collections, Swiss fabric-firework specialist JAKOB SCHLAEPFER supplies planners and designers with the tools they need for realising truly extraordinary interior projects.

Dauphin’s new Fiore chair collection has an invisible USP – an antimicrobial MicroSilver finish that is effective against bacterial infection and other micro-organisms.

The modern version of the revolving door by Sky-Frame combines Le Corbusier's idea of the fluidity of space with 21st-century technology …

The Classic sliding window line from Sky-Frame opens up spectacular views and fits into the most diverse of architectural contexts.

Find out why architects like Bjarke Ingels use glass solutions from the Swiss manufacturer Sky-Frame to break down the boundaries between inside and out.

While certain room elements are more susceptible to the whims of fashion, walls and floors often have more permanent natures. With their METALYN tile series, however, Villeroy & Boch show that the two are not mutually exclusive, as they

So that their captivating designs can also be enjoyed in bathrooms and spa areas, GLAMORA has developed the robust yet beautiful waterproof material GlamFusion.

For the Hotel Meliá Plaza in Valencia, architectural office Boconni Projects created an immersive, exotic parallel universe with design wallpaper by Italian manufacturer GLAMORA.

The impressive motifs and patterns of GLAMORA design wallpapers lend every project their own unique and extraordinary character.

Architectural boundaries are blurring thanks to German manufacturer SCHÜCO.

The award-winning Corpus acoustic element, created by star designer Hadi Teherani for OWA, enriches the interior design of a company's in-house catering project.

Free-hand thoughts, from the sketchbook to the wall

With ‘The Art of Simplicity’, Villeroy & Boch has designed tile collections that reflect our longing for a natural retreat – and sets the stage for the things that are really important to us.

B&B Italia and Naoto Fukasawa have teamed up to create Ayana – a refined, quietly innovative outdoor collection that may leave you with a feeling of déjà-vu.

With their new Bloom collection, Italian ceramic specialist FAP CERAMICHE is launching the largest white-body wall tile on the market, enabling surfaces that offer maximum visual continuity and fill bathrooms with personality.

German bathroom manufacturer KALDEWEI has comprehensively engaged with the topic of accessibility and developed some clever solutions for the more challenging floor plan.

Print-graphics experts Arlon Graphics are moving into interiors with an architectural range of high-quality vinyl wallcoverings – spreading bubble-free creativity across both commercial and residential spaces.

With its moveable glass facades, German family-owned company SOLARLUX is blurring the lines between outside and in – seamlessly merging the outdoors with indoor living spaces.

Inside or out? With Italian outdoor furniture manufacturer RODA’s new EDEN sofa collection this ceases to be a question, as indoor and outdoor living become one.

The Austrian wood-based products specialist knows how to satisfy its customers – combining decades of experience with state-of-the-art technology.

Bjarke Ingels talks unobstructed views and architecture as a force for good in the latest instalment of ‘My Point of View’, Swiss sliding-window manufacturer SKY-FRAME's film series.

Atlas Concorde, the internationally renowned Italian company founded 50 years ago, have the production of high-end porcelain and wall tiles down to a fine art.

The popular Leya series from Freifrau has a new sister and she’s more of the outdoor type. Anything but a couch potato, the Leyasol line is the first by Freifrau to venture outside.

The new flat-weave rugs from Swiss textile editor Christian Fischbacher are an expression of experience and flair

Bavarian Ceramic Facade specialists MOEDING use a very special material to achieve one of the most important tasks of architecture – creating a building’s outer shell.

The UK, Pakistan and Switzerland – these are the winners of the second ‘New & Next University Competition’ at Heimtextil (7–10 January 2020).

Heimtextil celebrates its anniversary: from 7–10 January 2020, the global home textiles industry will meet for the 50th time in Frankfurt am Main. The celebrations will include numerous events as well as exhibitors who have been here since the

For almost 60 years, porcelain stoneware manufacturer Casalgrande Padana has been investing heavily in research to extend the performance limits of ceramics in an architectural context.

In addition to innovations from the industry, Heimtextil 2020 offers the contract sector a specialist programme that makes it well worth travelling to Frankfurt to spend some time and be inspired.

Textiles and fabrics represent one of the earliest forms of human technology, as well as an effective, and not to mention sustainable, architectural element. And we’re not talking curtains.

If you know Wonderwall Studios, you probably know these guys always go the extra mile for their woods. Always have, always will. Since 2010 they trot the globe in search of those special batches of reclaimed woods. This time, they stayed a little

Bavaria's M&K Filze has learnt a thing or two about wool in its 150-year history, not least that it can be dangerous to follow the flock. No surprise then that they’ve developed a new material in-house: Nitona, a felt product that’s ideal for

Vanceva® World of Color Awards™ 2020 honours projects that most innovatively demonstrate creativity in the use of coloured laminated glass on finished buildings – both inside and out.

Sustainability is a permanent focus of Heimtextil. In 2020, the leading innovation platform will provide numerous tools and specials on this issue.

With its VELUX Modular Skylights, the large-scale, modular, glass roof system, VELUX Commercial brings maximum daylight into public, commercial and industrial buildings.

Swiss parquet manufacturer Bauwerk knows how to make its customers feel good. Not only are their products manufactured in a sustainable way, they also look great: The ingenious geometry of Formpark, for example, makes it possible to introduce a wide

HEIMTEXTIL 2020 in Frankfurt is differentiating its range of products in the area of ecologically manufactured textiles – among other things, with its new Future Materials Library.

Joined by a shared passion for design and innovative surfaces, MARCA CORONA has teamed up with a handful of architects and designers to create the innovative and passionate #ProjecteMotion video series on outstanding architectural projects.

In the new collections of Italian porcelain stoneware manufacturer Casalgrande Padana, low-maintenance, high-performance surfaces collide with exuberant style.

Tailor-made programme for interior designers, architects and hospitality experts at the world's largest trade fair for home textiles

Christian Fischbacher presents a new generation of recycled fabrics with the BENU TALENT FR outdoor velvet

With its five vivid experience worlds, HEIMTEXTIL 2020 provides you with the most relevant trends and market developments in the field of interior design.

The revolutionary LumiFlex floor from the German manufacturer ASB GLASSFLOOR transforms floor and wall surfaces of any size into heavy-duty, multifunctional monitors, and with them opens up new aesthetic and communicative avenues.

Heimtextil will launch the new 2020/2021 trend season with the general theme “WHERE I BELONG”.

The new Saanersloch gondola lift in Gstaad is a static masterpiece – and with its specially designed and unique all-glass facade by GLAS MARTE, it has also reached the top of the world.

The Swiss family company SWISSFINELINE specialises in the manufacture of large glass surfaces for windows, doors and railings that allow a view of everything but the structural elements.

Preparations for next January's HEIMTEXTIL are in full swing. Here's a foretaste of the varied programme architects and interior designers can expect at the world's largest trade fair for interior textiles.

FLORIM, the Italian go-to manufacturer of large ceramic slabs for architectural and interior-design use, is on a design-cultural mission…

The 11th edition of premium Italian porcelain-stoneware manufacturer’s Grand Prix sees architectural ceramic enter a golden age.

Nothing is quite as grounding in these increasingly digital times of ours as, well, the ground. Or, indeed, the floor. Swiss parquet producer BAUWERK is taking steps...

Founded 55 years ago, the international textile editeur NYA NORDISKA has continually pursued its aesthetic philosophy of minimalism, in addition to using textiles as a means to invoke a sense of wellbeing in an architectural landscape.

With its current product launch, OWA, the innovative German specialist for ceiling systems, gives architects more freedom to realise their creative visions without compromising on room acoustics.

Every two years, Vanceva® World of Color Awards™ honours international projects for the innovative and outstanding aesthetic use of VANCEVA colour interlayers for laminated glass. Let us introduce the impressive 2018 winner.

Wooden Floor. Biocompatibile, for life. Wood is a son of Earth, Water, Air and Light. From Earth, it gets solidity, from Water, the ability to change form, from Air, flexibility and lightness, from Light, its warmth.

Over 40 years of history for AGENA®, promoter of the Made in Italy and on the international markets with more than 100 collections of decorative fabrics for upholstery, curtains, accessories and many collections of wallpapers. Today, the company is

Considered the tool of the future, laser cutting and laser engraving of solid wood, veneer and other materials are available at strasserthun. Sawing, drilling and milling are also included in the company’s daily use. Strasserthun uses a specialised

The DST system from Pfleiderer will raise designers’ creative freedom to a whole new level, because, with the DST range, interiors can be decked out with different surfaces, textures and core materials and can thus be used to satisfy many technical

We all know what veneer is – at least we think we do. Few of us, though, know the full range of applications that this finest of tree products has to offer. Highly versatile not only in technical terms, but also in its visual and emotional impact,

Materials experts MATERIALS COUNCIL continue their investigation of the material-innovation and building-technology possibilities offered by the planned rebirth of London’s legendary Crystal Palace.

One of most iconic architectural structures of the 19th century – London’s legendary Crystal Palace – is being reborn, with a host of international starchitects in the running to rethink it. Leading materials consultancy MATERIALS COUNCIL

Nominated for this year's Design Prize Switzerland, Zurich-based designer Beat Karrer's material innovation FluidSolids, with its strong ecological credentials and impressive programmability, is poised to give traditional materials like metal and

For a colourless, odourless gas, CO2 packs a punch. It now accounts for 76% of all greenhouse-gas emissions. So how do you communicate to a fair-going public the relative merits of different materials when it comes to carbon emissions? Materials

Materials Council has been busy. Founded in partnership with Architonic in 2012, the leading London-based consultancy has proved in a mere nine months its expertise and relevance to architects, manufacturers and business, providing indispensable

Nature does a pretty good job of shaping our environment. But what happens when innovation and creative thinking are applied to the more sustainable natural materials out there? Leading materials consultancy Materials Council investigates the

If you think textile design is, well, a little two-dimensional, think again. Contemporary producers of high-quality woven materials for interiors are busy exploring all sorts of innovative directions in terms of materials, processes and applications.

White. But not as you know it. Newly launched creative materials consultancy Materials Council's inaugural show at this year's Super Brands London neatly demonstrated that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to that most pure of colours.

Architonic is proud to announce the launch of Materials Council – a new partner company in which it has a significant participation – at the London Design Festival, September 2012.

Most people have at one time or another spent the night in a tent and have benefited from the protection provided by its fabric, while at the same time enjoying the sensation of being separated from nature by nothing more than a thin shell. Textile

In what for the moment will be the last part of our "Concrete in Architecture" series the focus will be on the use of concrete in interior architecture, in particular for creating objects and furniture. .The attraction of concrete as a material is

In the second part of our 'Concrete in Architecture' series, Architonic shows how concrete certainly doesn't have to be grey. From delicate tones to high luminosity, it can take on a wide range of chromatic and emotional complexions. In the following

Recently, carpentry-oriented joinery has been enjoying a renaissance thanks to the increased use of CNC-driven manufacturing techniques – even connecting parts can be produced in a number of geometric variations and cost efficiently at that.

Almost no other material manages to carry such contradictory associations. Stigmatised on the one hand, celebrated on the other, it evokes highly diverse reactions. The word 'concrete' was used for the first time in 1750 by Bernard Forêst de

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon went down in history as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Vertical gardens were then, as they still are today, signs of innovative architecture.

Day three of research at the MADE fair took the Architonic Team even deeper into the Milan exhibition halls, temporary home of a seemingly inexhaustible amount of exciting materials and products.

Here are our discoveries from the second day of the MADE expo in Milan, the fair that makes every materials fetishist's heart beat faster.including ours.

MADE 2010, short for Milano Design Architettura Edilizia, took place at the city's trade-fair grounds, wowing visitors with an exciting exhibition of building and other materials. Because of the wealth of materials on show, which we gathered over

Architonic recently visited the Swissbau 2010 expo in Basel, whose focus this year was on sustainability. From the mass of exhbitors, we've selected our favourites for you, scrutinising their innovative, technological and architectural qualities.

Innovative materials for designers, architects and product developers

Felt is a material which is experiencing a renaissance. Not just in fashion but nowadays also in product design and architecture, more and more creative spirits are exploiting the potential of this material.

Refurbishing the Alice Tully Hall (built 1969) in the Licoln Center, New York, presented a unique challenge for the U.S. company 3form.

ComplexCity is an exploration to find a concealed aesthetic by using the pattern formed by the city's roads, which have been growing and evolving randomly through time.

Ein Archiv spezieller Art wurde jüngst mit dem Materialarchiv ins Leben gerufen. Das Materialarchiv ist eine Symbiose aus Online-Datenbank und einer Materialsammlung zum Anfassen als auch des haptischen Erlebens von Werkstoffen.

Nya Nordiska, a leading international textile company based in Dannenberg, North Germany, whose early stages were strongly influenced by Scandinavian design, recently received a highly unusual enquiry from the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.

For hundreds of years artists and architects have been fascinated by cast shadows and perspective – the two shaping factors of spatial representation. Today the direct control of production machinery by means of digital design tools imparts an

Sweet Hope is a curtain fabric, designed by the acclaimed Japanese designer Akira Minagawa. Ideal for offices, it offers superb heat and light regulation properties.

From 22 to 27 April 2009 the aesthetic quality and cutting-edge technology of Italian ceramics will be the main focus of the image show “Ceramic Tiles of Italy. A Natural Beauty”.

This is an exciting and stimulating book which is both an enjoyable read and a detailed and accurate work of reference!

The Zumtobel Highlights Show has been kicked off on 2 September, which marked the beginning of a 23,000 kilometer journey for the product innovations.

As a result of diminishing resources and rising prices the age of oil is drawing to a close. Accordingly there is increasing interest in renewable raw materials as alternative sources.

Ceramic tiles as wall decoration were brought to southern Europe by the Moors and the first European ceramics industry was to be found in the Roman Empire. It is therefore not surprising that the most important trade fair for the ceramics industry

The extension to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is an impressive example of the use of translucent but opaque glass facades.

Cork enables innovative production methods and new ways of interaction with the environment. Widely praised as a pioneering force in green trends, this tactile and unconventional material.

The locations for the competitions in this summer's Olympic Games in China had to meet a range of criteria.

Sabine Seymour, who among other things lectures at the Parsons New School for Design, New York, has put together a collection of products and materials which looks at the close interlinking of fashion, design, technology and science.

The electric light bulb has had its day. Ecological and energy-efficient illuminants such as LEDs or OLEDs are becoming more and more attractive to the consume.

Sprayed-on metal skin for seamless and geometrically complex metal surfaces

The tenth MATERIALICA in Munich focused specifically on design. For the fifth time the fair presented the Materialica Design + Technology Award to outstanding and innovative performance in the fields of design or engineering.

Innovative materials inspire designers and architects to create ever new products and applications. This was demonstrated at the end of 2007, when the latest developments in the field of new production and surfacing materials were presented at two

The European Ceramic Workcenter (.ekwc) in the Netherlands regards itself as an international workshop facility and provides designers, artists and architects with the opportunity to carry out technical and artistic experiments using ceramics and