Going up the walls: Pandomo

How exactly specific trends come to emerge in the first place can be as mysterious as their duration or the reason for their coming to an end. An example of this is the recent comeback of terrazzo flooring. Initiated by a number of designers around 2014, it then gained some momentum in 2015 with Wes Anderson’s use of the candy-coloured material for the floor of Bar Luce in Milan's Fondazione Prada museum, which the director designed in the highly stylised, retro look typical of his films.

Barely three years later, and it seemed there was no way of avoiding terrazzo at the Salone del Mobile. Today, not only is it much sought after for floors, but wallpapers and home accessories featuring its speckled stone pattern design are also conquering our living spaces. But unlike other products that may be on-trend, terrazzo, with its durability and elegance, also proves its potential for permanence.

Pandomo has long recognised the benefits of the material, manufacturing terrazzo to such a quality that it becomes easy to see why this sustainable building material has continued to trigger trends ever since antiquity, as well as holding on to a permanent community of admirers. And Pandomo’s noble, timeless surface system can be individually modified, allowing customers to add local flair to their floor by adding aggregates to it from the region.

As a specialist in decorative flooring, Pandomo has developed three variants that offer the right solution for different spaces, based on traditional terrazzo techniques. Pandomo TerrazzoBasic scores not only in terms of economy and ease of use, it also offers such a high-quality, even surface that, despite its vibrancy, it can serve as the stage for more reserved environments, such as David Chipperfield's new building at the Museum Folkwang in Essen.

Pandomo TerrazzoMicro is a more finely grained variant. Here, the typical terrazzo character is more subdued, less accentuated. As a finer surface, the floor can add nobility to more purist architecture without forcing itself to the front. Whether in new buildings or on renovation projects, thanks to its low material requirements, this low-maintenance floor covering is attractive in terms of economy and can be realised practically anywhere.

Pandomo TerrazzoPlus offers the classic terrazzo look. It is extremely hard-wearing and robust, even in places that are subject to extreme wear and tear such as hotel lobbies, restaurants or other public spaces. Equally impressive is the material’s seamless quality, its short drying time requirements and extremely high resistance to pressure and abrasion.

The versatility of this surface system is also shown in Pandomo’s smoothing compound, which enables the same permanent concrete look to be applied to other surfaces – allowing architects, planners and interior designers to create spaces that have a unified appearance.

Pandomo Studio allows for maximum individual design freedom, with a thin-layer of the compound effortlessly enabling ceilings, walls and floor surfaces to be blended into a single aesthetic unit, if desired. As a monolithic design, the material does not create competition with other surfaces, colours and materials, but rather combines interior and various design elements to create a harmonious look.

In addition to its range of processing and application possibilities, the smoothing compound’s low build-up height can make even small renovations look like big renovations. With just a little preparation, Pandomo Studio can even be applied directly to older existing surfaces such as tiles or roughcast: a material benefit in terms of both financial and time savings.

The broad choice of colours on offer and the ability afforded by it to create surfaces with individual character during the fabrication process only adds to Pandomo Studio’s versatile benefits. The natural, durable mineral material turns floors, ceilings and walls into unique things that – from homogeneously cloudy to strongly structured – each bear the signature of their fabricator while also creating a unique atmosphere.

So as trend analysts and forecasters try to predict the next big thing with the help of research, interviews and market observations, Pandomo remains reliably devoted to the seminal here and now, with materials that are durable, sustainable and, yes, timeless.

© Architonic