A snowtopped landscape at Stockholm Design Week showcases the beauty of vinyl flooring

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Art display in a floor to ceiling glass room of multiple snow-like hills in different sizes with wood structures attached
Vinyl flooring specialists Tarkett and Swedish design practice Note Design Studio rekindle their shared passion for design with ‘Snowtopped’, a new installation at Stockholm Design Week 2019
(Image credit: TBC)

After the success of last year’s ‘The Lookout’ installation at Stockholm Furniture Fair, global flooring giant Tarkett and multidisciplinary Swedish design practice Note Design Studio have joined forces once again. This year they have chosen a venue in the heart of the city, on a 13th-floor rooftop with 360° panoramic views, and transformed the vast indoor-outdoors space into a poetic and immersive snow-covered landscape of different shapes made out of Tarkett’s iQ vinyl flooring ranges in various – and sometimes shimmering – hues of white and grey.

‘Snowtopped’, as the installation is called, is soft and immersive like a snowdrift but dotted with contrasting elements made of other materials – such as wood or metal – that pop out of the ‘snow’. ‘We wanted to show how well the Tarkett ranges work with other materials,’ explains Cristiano Pigazzini, design manager at Note. The designers also wanted to encourage people to stop thinking of these ranges exclusively in terms of flooring or wall-coverings. ‘It’s a material that is strong and long-lasting, in a way it’s like wood,’ says Pigazzini. ‘You can do whatever you want with it.’

An artistic wall scultpure display with grey bumpy patterns with a round oak coloured spot on the top right and square pink abstract painting on the mid left

(Image credit: TBC)

For Tarkett doing an installation like this is about showing their products in a new way. ‘We want to prove that materials which are perceived initially as more functional have great aesthetic potential as well,’ says Florian Bougault, art director for Tarkett EMEA. ‘And that they can be combined with more “noble materials” such as stone, marble, textiles and timber floors.’

There is a thread between last year’s installation and this year’s edition he continues. ‘The Lookout’ displayed Tarkett materials that are normally used two-dimensionally in a three-dimensional way. ‘This year’s installation continues with this three-dimensionality but also accentuates the versatility in applying our materials.’ Making the installation’s snowy forms was a challenge even for Tarkett’s extremely experienced technical team he admits, but the complex assembly and finishes are seamless.

A design studio with grey vinyl flooring and floor to ceiling windows (giving of view of the city) featuring dark grey marble design box and rectangle shapes structures spread around the room

(Image credit: TBC)

The collaboration with Note Design Studio won’t end in Stockholm. It continues in April in Milan with ‘Formations’, another installation that will go on display in the elegant Circolo Filologico Milanese in Brera. According to Pigazzini, ‘that exhibition will take Tarkett’s materials to the limits of what can be done’. On the same occasion the brand will also launch a new range co-designed with Note. Tarkett is on a design journey that shows no signs of abating.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Tarkett website and the Note Design Studio website

Giovanna Dunmall

Giovanna Dunmall is a freelance journalist based in London and West Wales who writes about architecture, culture, travel and design for international publications including The National, Wallpaper*, Azure, Detail, Damn, Conde Nast Traveller, AD India, Interior Design, Design Anthology and others. She also does editing, translation and copy writing work for architecture practices, design brands and cultural organisations.