What led you to a closer consideration of the subject area “flooring”? Which aspects have you focused on in particular and what is the concept you came up with? Steffen Kehrle: This was in fact our first real contact with the area of “flooring”. What we always tend to do in such a case is take a very detailed look at the company and their production processes. Fortunately, we were able to spend a whole day looking around Dura GmbH’s production plants, which was extremely interesting and eye-opening. This is where we came up with our initial ideas and thoughts on how we would approach the subject. Just a few tweaks to their everyday processes and we were able to generate some really special patterns on the carpets. But we first required an understanding of how the color application process works, which wasn’t as easy as one might think. For “Power Dekor” we have designed a room that is completely covered in bamboo parquet. It is such a wonderful material; we wanted visitors to experience it in its full glory, entirely surrounded by it. Thus the room functions in a similar way to a labyrinth. What was the greatest challenge you faced when implementing your project? Kehrle: Dura GmbH provided us with a great deal of support and was fully on board from the get-go. That was a great help to us. I think this project was a lot of fun for both parties. I did have to make real use of my powers of persuasion on my project with “Power Dekor”, however, but I hope that everyone will be as pleased as I am with the outcome. Do you have a favorite type of flooring – both personally and from a designer’s perspective? Kehrle: No, to be honest I don’t have a favorite. I would say it all depends on the architecture.
Steffen Kehrle: A labyrinthine room in bamboo parquet
Jan 10, 2013
For the “Flooring Deluxe” project, designer Steffen Kehrle cooperated with two manufacturers at the same time, photo © Julian Baumann
For the “Flooring Deluxe” project, designer Steffen Kehrle cooperated with two manufacturers at the same time, photo © Julian Baumann
All images of the making of the project with manufacturer Dura © Atelier Steffen Kehrle
All model images and sketches of the project with manufacturer Power Dekor © Atelier Steffen Kehrle