Skip to main content

C.P. Hart delivered superior quality bathroom schemes for London’s iconic Grade II listed Centre Point, formerly a 1960s office building. Located on Tottenham Court Road, this landmark 34-storey tower development has been transformed into 82 high-end residential apartments.

The Specification

C.P. Hart worked in close partnership with Conran & Partners as they managed the planning and completion of the shell and core, interior design and complete apartment fit-outs. Drawing from its long-standing relationships with Europe’s most highly regarded bathroom manufacturers, C.P. Hart supplied vanity units and sanitaryware from Dornbracht, paired with the brand’s Lulu brassware range in Platinum Matt finish; WCs from Duravit and Vola; freestanding baths from Bette; and Bleu de Savoie marble stone walls.

The team also supplied a comprehensive range of products for the building’s accessible rooms, providing specialist advice to ensure the highest possible level of comfort for any user.

The Result

One of the most exciting developments in London, Centre Point has breathed life into Tottenham Court Road. The individualistic and cleverly designed bathrooms complement the bold and imaginative residential scheme that Centre Point has become.  All parties involved have been delighted by the bathroom product selection, certainly a factor in attracting instant attention from potential new owners.

If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more. 

Pushing the boundaries of product design from form and function, to technology and mechanics, Founder, Julien Bonzom, shares how his design studio developed its unique offering for the interior design market. Julien highlights growing client sentiments towards the quality and expertise that comes with local craftsmanship to design for longevity.

What are the origins Julien Bonzom?

I grew up in the South of France. I pretty much spent my entire childhood in my dad’s workshop working alongside him with materials like wood and metal, and on agricultural machinery repairs. I studied history of art and the traditional furniture making at the Institute Europeen de Formation des Compagnons du tour de France (IEF-CTF) – a unique school led by the best French craftsmen.

I participated in several prestigious competitions and won the Meilleur Apprenti de France (MAF; best apprentice in France) before my 16th birthday. After this award I was incredibly happy to have had a job offered by a world renown company, which opened to me the opportunity to travel the world. I perfected my knowledge in manufacturing and discovered my passion for design.

When I settled in London in 2014, I set up my own design studio specialised in the fields of design, horology, furniture as well as creating unique and limited-edition design art pieces. My passion rapidly became a success that drove me towards more and more refined projects and tasks. My clientele today is international: from world renown Swiss watch brands to furniture manufacturers, editors, and private clients.

After almost a decade of dedication to perfection, building relationships, and garnering respect from industry leaders, I decided to move to Toulouse, France with the desire to create the pieces that were stuck in my head, and collaborate with people who have the same desire for creating as me. I have a profound respect for French tradition and craftsmanship, and my vision is to reinvigorate and rediscover a sense of pride in the history, heritage, and details of centuries ago.

How do you work with interior designers?

I work hand in hand with interior and yacht designers, as well as property developers. I’m a sort of a ‘tools box’ for them, which I enjoy. Due to my design and engineering background in multiple fields I have endless possibilities at the tips of my fingers: bringing horology and automotive details and finishes to products. Manufacturing specific fixings methodology and installations are only few examples of the services I offer. I mix craftsmanship techniques, engineering and material knowledge from many fields which gives interior designers the possibilities to have a unique piece that truly pushes their styling to a next level, whilst being functional at the same time.

Since 2018, as well as answering bespoke design commissions, I have been designing art pieces that truly represent my work, slowly building a collection and a name as a designer / artist. Interior designers enjoy using my creations as each is unique and can be positioned as part of many interior schemes.

What are the latest trends you’ve noticed in your client’s requests?

Regarding furniture and lighting brands, there is a trend towards designing new collections with ethical materials. In addition, there is always this perpetual ‘less is more’ trend, pushing to create clean lines all of which is also a part of my design approach.

In the horology sector, the current trend is to really push the independent craftsmanship. My clients ask me more and more to bring back old techniques into a modern feel, which I genuinely enjoy.

Private clients often do not look for a specific trend but instead ask to have something unique created that represents them. The requests for durability are on the rise, and it is a strength in my offering - to create pieces that will carry through to the next generation.

In general, design is moving towards the multi-function object, hand crafted and mostly produced locally. People are shifting the way of consuming goods and this will have a significant impact on new design. Julien Bonzom believes in designing products that last a lifespan, and that are built to be environmentally friendly. I am doing my best to achieve this every day.

What value does your sector add to the interior design industry?

The value is in creating objects that represent the client’s personality, objects that can be passed on to the next generation; not following a trend but owning an art piece.

How do your services/offering enhance an interior designer’s projects? 

I’m acting in a sector where customers have pretty much everything. Interior and yacht designers are constantly looking for objects that bring their clients’ experience to the next level. The services I offer integrate precision, craftsmanship, and technology with an array of materials, and help interior designers enhance their projects. I have knowledge into the manufacturing process and not design only; this helps designers save time and budget.

To find out how to join SBID professional membership, click here 

In the 30 years since it was founded, TSAR Carpets create holistic compositions that empowers its wide range of clientele — from commercial, hospitality, and residential customers — to achieve a cohesive architectural expression from the ground up.

For the New York City headquarters of Equinox, the American luxury fitness company which operates several lifestyle brands, TSAR installed approximately 115m2 of custom-made hand-tufted carpet across highly-trafficked spaces, creating a modern and energetic atmosphere.

Architect: Kohn Pederson Fox
Interior Designer: Architecture + Information
Photography: Magda Biernat
Completion: 2019

TSAR’s work resonated with the client thanks to the company’s diverse product suite and unparalleled ability to create high-end custom designs that suit the needs of various customer specifications.

The goal of the project was to supply the client with TSAR’s high-quality and durable product offering, which is suitable across a range of spaces that serve a variety of functions including the headquarters' commercial and public spaces (café, lounge and receptions), as well as private-facing office areas (c- suites and the Executive Lounge) that required high-density carpet to withstand traffic and caster chairs.

Another client requirement was supplying a bespoke product that matched and complemented the furniture, fixtures, and equipment in each designated environment, particularly custom colour-matching. In presenting material boards featuring custom samples and design plates that were visually in line with each distinct space, TSAR was able to work directly with the client to maintain aesthetic consistency from room-to-room, meeting the design needs of the client.

With an exceptional emphasis on performance, the client was extremely satisfied with the end result — so much so they decided to carpet additional areas within the Headquarters that were not originally specified. The client intends to specify TSAR on further projects of a similar calibre in coming months.

About the Author

TSAR Carpets is a Melbourne-based design brand with over 30 years of expertise in the manufacturing of luxury custom carpets and rugs. A family-owned business founded by David and Kerrie Sharpley, it is now a global company recognised for its passion for textiles and its profound knowledge of the hand-tufted technique. TSAR delivers bespoke floor coverings for high-end residential, hospitality, and commercial environments worldwide.

If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more. 

Regarded as one the most prestigious accolades for interior design, the highly anticipated winners of this year’s SBID Awards have been revealed! For the first time in 10 years, the category winners of the SBID International Design Awards were announced publicly online, alongside the inaugural SBID Product Design Awards winners in a joint celebration of interior design excellence. Championing the exceptional designers of interiors and the innovative products that go in them!

Scroll down to discover this year's incredible SBID award-winning interior products from around the world, showcasing the industry's best in the interior design sector.

SBID Product Design Awards Winners 2020:

OVERALL-WINNER-Northstone-The-Fine-Lines

OVERALL WINNER

Northstone Contemporary Terrazzo for The Fine Lines by Barbieri

The collection was born from a union of knowledge in the terrazzo technique and design by Northstone and the Artisan Tile & Stone Designer, Giovanni Barbieri. Through combined expertise, ‘The Fine Lines’ strikes the balance between crafting a handmade, artisan tile collection and achieving premium performance.

Accessories 

Hoda Lasheen Interior Design for Crafted by Nature 

The Crafted by Nature collection of home accessories is inspired by the defects found in natural Aserus trees. Rather than treating those flaws, they elevated them; enhancing them with gold leaves to emphasize the material’s imperfect beauty and highlight the art that nature produced.

Bathroom Products

Aquabella for Smart Quiz

The Smart Quiz shower tray represents 25 years of innovative creations which blend into a unique finish formed by different textures set beneath geometric patterns. It results in a surface with an appearance that has never been seen before, featuring three high-definition finishes created by Acquabella; Beton, Zero and Ethnic.

Brassware

Giulini G. Rubinetteria for Ego

Ego, a tap as beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside, creates a sinuous line that combines body and spout in a harmonious design. An eco-friendly thought that takes shape with the use of advanced technology, machinery and last but not least, the supply of energy through solar panels.

Cabinetry & Joinery

The Boathouse Studio for WOW Front Door

Creating a grand new entrance for a riverside property during a major refurbishment, the stained glass was designed and made by Jackie Callingham at her Boathouse Studio, with bespoke door carved by Colin Mantripp at Lillyfee Woodcarving Studio Ltd.

Fabric & Textiles

Garrett Leather for Garrett Wovens

Using the finest raw materials to create Garrett Wovens®, this elegant collection is 100% vegetable tanned, providing firm leather that gives the weave a structural integrity which is not possible with standard upholstery leather.

Flooring & Floor Coverings

Tsar Carpets UK for Saltwater

Inspiration for the collection was drawn from a beach stroll at sunset, peaking an intense curiosity to see if details could be translated into functional textiles. The design translates organic sand, sky and coral formations into textiles using a variety of construction techniques.

Furniture - Contract

Scavolini for BoxLife

BoxLife is designed to accommodate a variety of needs; a timely requirement of today’s modern living spaces which call for limitless adaptability from their discerning inhabitants. BoxLife is a system that adapts to many applications for transforming and storing away, as need be.

Furniture - Residential

Maison Arabella for Chair Objet

For Maison Arabella, furniture should energise an environment in the same way a painting or sculpture does. In Chair Objet, each detail has been carefully considered to create a sleek, minimalist silhouette that is contrasted with the soft curves of the upholstery, evoking understated elegance.

Heating & Cooling

Bisque for Balmoral

Designed with a timeless aesthetic in mind, Bisque’s Balmoral radiator is a highly efficient, stylish and versatile addition to any bathroom. Without compromising on performance or output, the Victorian-style radiator is suitable for both vintage-inspired interiors, or statement industrial spaces.

Ironmongery & Metalworks

Armac Martin for MIX

MIX by Armac Martin is an innovative collection of interchangeable luxury cabinet hardware that gives you more control over the finished design. Made in the heart of England from the finest solid brass, the contemporary pieces are a must for those seeking a truly personalised hardware look.

Kitchen Product

Quooker UK for Quooker Flex with CUBE

As the original 100-degree boiling water tap brand on the market, Quooker Flex offers both form and function. Equipped with a flexible pull-out hose for hot, cold and filtered water, the Flex makes it easy to reach and rinse the sink or any awkward kitchen objects.

Leisure & Wellbeing

Robert Majkut Design for Whaletone the Piano - Grand version

Whaletone Grand is a bespoke musical instrument and is part of piano collection designed by Robert Majkut. Being a unique combination of an original design and advanced technology, it caters for the taste of both design lovers, and professional musicians.

Lighting

Tigermoth Lighting for Fold Linear Chandelier

Fold Linear Chandelier produces a linear array of folded brass shades, each one made from a single piece of hand-grained folded brass. Individually, the shades present a striking geometric shape. Together, they take on an organic form.

Outdoor

CASUSGRILL for CasusGrill - the Eco Friendly Single-Use Grill

CasusGrill is a world patented redesign and green transformation of the aluminium disposable single-use grill. It is only made of sustainable materials such as cardboard, natural bamboo, lava stones and bamboo charcoal briquettes.

Sanitaryware

Sheng Tai Brassware for JUSTIME Lucky 7 Basin and Faucet Combination

The Lucky 7 Basin and Faucet Combination was inspired by the concept of growing seeds. As the fountainhead of plants, each budding seed is the symbol of hope and vitality. The faucet is designed like a growing stalk bursting through the earth with a succinct pillared shape and simplified lines.

Sound & Vision

Icon Connect for Icon Control App

The Icon Control App’s unique Control interface is based on a simple, easy to use “No Homepage” approach - every control application is easy to find on every screen, with an elegant and simple user interface which provides speed and accuracy.

Surfaces & Finishes

Graham & Brown for Adeline Paint in Resistance Finish

Launched as Graham & Brown’s hero hue, Adeline is a deep rich bottle green colour channelling the healing properties of nature, allowing you to create a peaceful and natural setting. Like all hues in the Graham & Brown collection, Adeline is water-based which means it is low odour and has a lower VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) level than any oil-based paints.

Click here to discover the 2020 SBID Award winners for interior design!

Visit sbidawards.com to find out more.

While the world spent the past six months figuring out how to cope with COVID-19’s “new reality,” TSAR Carpets’ Melbourne-based Head Designer, Ross Cleland, channelled his creative exploration into a series of soothing and biophilic floor covering designs. For its new Fall 2020 product launch, TSAR is pleased to release The Retreat Collection - available exclusively at the company’s studios in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, London, and Shanghai.

“The word ‘retreat’ connotes withdrawal and seclusion from it all,” said Cleland. “I found my retreat in the countryside with my family to be quite the opposite. The river next to our house was the source of my renewed artistic vigour despite everything that’s going on in the world - and challenged me to try out new colours, patterns, and techniques. The end results are carpet designs flowing with positive, wholesome energy. I am so proud to introduce The Retreat Collection of Axminster carpet designs to the world, especially during these precarious collective circumstances in which we find ourselves.”

The Retreat Collection started out as an investigation of fluid mechanics in the art studio—a sort of trial-and-error experiment with inks on paper and air propulsion from a hand dryer. Cleland played with particular blues and greys, and then added more vibrant colours such as reds, yellows, purples, and greens. He ended up with a series of free-flowing textures that give the collection a freeform, unstructured quality. Using natural bodies of water as an inspiration and art as the means, Cleland transcended two-dimensional surfaces into modern architectural complements. While the Retreat Collection’s design vocabulary was initially developed in a series of hand-crafted moments within the artist’s studio, TSAR’s Retreat Collection distils moments of serendipitous ephemerality into a range of carpet designs that are balanced with a marked timelessness and a purposeful approach.

Leveraging TSAR’s vertically integrated manufacturing, TSAR realised Cleland’s vision into an Axminster carpet collection to be applied to a variety of interior design programmes and architectural sequences. Framed around the concept of the future of hospitality design and suitable for a wide variety of interior applications, TSAR’s Retreat Axminster carpets add visual movement and flow underfoot. By using interchangeable colours, each design can take on a new meaning and purpose, responsive to the architecture and bespoke to its interior context. Designs can be applied with individual room placement or as continuous patterned carpet. Specification, colours, and image scale can also be customised to suit any project scheme.

Standard Axminster carpet appearance is traditionally plain cut pile—which means manufacturers would usually need to simulate the pattern’s visual depth—by using trompé-l'oeil effects. TSAR has innovated three proprietary techniques to deliver custom, large-scale carpet and rug designs that allow for true depth and a hand-tufted feel while maintaining the value-driven price point of large-area Axminster carpet applications.

Carving

This is a process of hand-shearing areas of the carpet's pile in order to create textures around woven design elements. This particular technique transforming one-dimensional perspectives to patterns that draws the eye across the carpet with ridges and valleys, enhancing and highlighting areas of flat designs woven in Axminster.

Raised Kristal Pile

Available as limited quantities, this technique brings lustre to the carpet, which is otherwise not possible in Axminster production. Again adding depth and dimension, but also elevating the product for a lusher, more textural and hand-tufted outcome.

Loop Pile

Using small quantities of loop pile in TSAR’s Axminster designs means that the visual can be broken up, and stop the eye from scanning the floor plan with no pause point.

About the Author

TSAR Carpets is a Melbourne-based design brand with over 30 years of expertise in the manufacturing of luxury custom carpets and rugs. A family-owned business founded by David and Kerrie Sharpley, it is now a global company recognised for its passion for textiles and its profound knowledge of the hand-tufted technique. TSAR delivers bespoke floor coverings for high-end residential, hospitality, and commercial environments worldwide.

If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more. 

Melbourne-based and SBID Accredited design brand TSAR Carpets, a leading global manufacturer of luxury custom floor coverings for residential, hospitality, and commercial environments, announced the opening of its new London studio on 28 September 2020. Situated in the Parsons Green district of Fulham, South West London, the studio will serve as TSAR’s UK, European and Middle Eastern base of operations that not only exhibits a comprehensive selection of TSAR carpet and rug product lines, but also serves as a destination for innovative ideas and creative project collaborations with designers and architects.

“We are thrilled to expand our global presence with a new London showroom,” said David Sharpley, CEO and Co-Founder of TSAR Carpets. “TSAR’s product and service commitments will be brought to our residential and commercial trade clients in the UK, Continental Europe, and Middle East territories.”

Joining the TSAR Carpets UK business development team are veterans in the architecture and design industry, Mike Constable and Carly-Anne Fitzgerald. Mike Constable is the Director for TSAR Carpets UK and has worked within the London and UK interior design market for over 20 years and will be a familiar face to many. Following his time with Silent Gliss and Robert Allen, Constable spent 12 years with JAB Anstoetz as UK MD. Carly-Anne Fitzgerald, who is the Business Development Manager and Design Associate for TSAR Carpets UK, has experience in both lighting and furniture design as well as prior experience with carpet, having worked with UK and international manufacturers.

“The new studio is poised to showcase TSAR’s high quality, custom-made carpet and rug portfolio, and further inspire our residential and commercial clients with the spaces they are imagining and designing,” said Constable. “We want designers and architects to have an immersive, tactile experience with TSAR’s products. And together with my colleague Carly-Anne, we are here to serve as a valuable resource for our design-savvy clients.”

The TSAR London studio, located at 126–128 New Kings Road, is a short walk from the Chelsea Harbour Design Centre and The Kings Road, which was made famous by fashion legends Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood. Opening hours are Monday - Friday from 9:00am to 5:00pm, by appointment only.

If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more. 

The finalists for SBID Awards product design categories were revealed earlier this month! Receiving entries from 49 countries around the world, the SBID Awards 2020 has been the most globally represented edition to date.

With the public vote open until 30 September, you can vote for your favourite products across each of the 17 categories and have your say in which designs have what it takes to take home a prestigious SBID Award!

Accessories

Arteriors - Lesley Large Sculpture

This category is dedicated to all interior accessories such as cushions, bed linen, tableware, stemware and decorative items including art and photography.

Bathroom Product

Not Only White BV - Aim Collection

This category focuses on any products suitable for use within a bathroom ranging from bathroom cabinets, mirrors and towel rails to shower doors and screens. Both residential and commercial bathroom products are eligible.

Brassware

Waterworks - Bond

This category is dedicated exclusively to brassware. Entries can include but are not limited to mixer, pillar and dual flow taps and shower heads.

Cabinetry & Joinery

King Slide Works Co. - Simlead Drawer Box System

This category focuses on interior cabinetry and joinery such as wardrobes, doors, fitted furniture and bespoke pieces.

Fabric & Textiles

Linwood - Omega Prints II

This category encompasses all commercial and residential fabrics and textiles, upholstery, curtains and curtain accessories. Textiles and fabrics can be synthetic or made from natural fibres.

Flooring & Floor Coverings

Tsar Carpets UK Limited - Saltwater

This category focuses on interior flooring and floor coverings. Entries can include but is not limited to carpet, laminate, tile, vinyl and rugs.

Furniture – Contract

KI - Colonnade

This category is dedicated to all furniture for use within a contract or commercial interior such as a hotel, restaurant or hospital. Furniture can range from tables and chairs to sofas, banquettes, benches and stools.

Furniture – Residential

Powell & Bonnell - The Strand Swivel Tilt Lounge Chair

This category is dedicated to all interior furniture solely for residential use. Furniture can range from tables, chairs and sofas to benches, stools and beds.

Heating & Cooling

Bisque - Optic

This category focuses on heating and cooling in an interior space. Eligible products range from fireplaces, radiators, stoves, grills and underfloor heating to air con, comfort cooling, and fans.

Ironmongery & Metalwork

Armac Martin - MIX

This category is for ironmongery, metalwork and architectural hardware including hinges, locks, handles door knockers and door furniture. Products can also include inset metalwork and bespoke forgery.

Kitchen Product

Quooker UK - Quooker Flex with CUBE

This category rewards skill and innovation for kitchen products such as appliances, kitchen cabinets, and kitchen worktops.

Leisure & Wellbeing

Grace of London - The Crystal Bathe Collection

This category can include any interior product used within a leisure or wellbeing facility such as a gym, spa or games room. Eligible products include gym equipment, spa equipment and associated wellbeing products to games tables and associated products.

Lighting

Catellani & Smith - Petits Bijoux

This category is dedicated exclusively to lighting design. products can include general, ambient, mood, task and accent lighting for both residential and contract interiors. Lighting products range from architectural lighting, chandeliers, lamps and desk lights to ceiling lights and bulbs.

Outdoor

Winch Design - Arc By Winch Design For Summit Furniture

This category is solely for outdoor products for either residential or contract use ranging from outdoor furniture, outdoor lighting, signage, garden furniture, sun protection, fire pits, BBQs and grills.

Sanitaryware

Bette UK - BettePond Silhouette Bath

This category is dedicated to sanitaryware including baths, sinks, shower trays, bidets, urinals, wash planes etc.

Sound & Vision

Zaha Hadid Ltd - Loop

This category is for audio visual and/or lighting schemes as well as individual products. AV/lighting schemes are eligible for both residential and commercial interiors. Entries should reflect how the concept meets the needs of both the client and the end user. Individual products such as TVs, speakers, home automation and music systems are also eligible.

Surfaces & Finishes

Parkside - Spectre

This category is for architectural and interior surfaces and finishes. These include but are not limited to panels, wallcoverings, stone, veneers, ceramics, wood, acrylic, glass, mouldings, paint and tiles.

Voting closes at 5pm (BST) on 30 September.

Visit www.sbidawards.com to find out more! 

SBID Accredited Partner, KI Europe has published new Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its portfolio of UK-manufactured products to help customers meet their sustainability objectives. Valid for five years, these documents help to achieve credits towards SKA, BREEAM, LEED and other certifications and standards.

KI’s furniture helps the world leading organisations create happy, healthy, high performing working and learning environments for their people; bringing together good design, advanced engineering and sustainable resources.

An EPD is a standardised and verified way of quantifying the environmental impacts of a product based on a consistent set of rules known as a PCR (Product Category Rules). Conformant with ISO 14025 (ISO 14025:2006 Environmental labels and declarations - Type III environmental declarations - Principles and procedures), these cradle-to-grave EPDs are concise and include environmental information and life cycle assessments (LCA) which have been conducted by Giraffe Innovation Ltd. LCAs cover materials, production, distribution, use, through to end of life; helping specifiers and customers to confidently make more sustainable procurement decisions.

Jonathan Hindle, KI’s Group Managing Director, EMEA, comments: “Sustainability is a top priority for a growing number of public and private sector projects. These EPDs show our commitment to tackling our shared issues such as climate change, carbon footprint and environmental impact. Additionally, analysing the environmental performance of our products over their lifetime can help us to develop even better products and processes in the future.”

KI’s products manufactured in the UK with third-party verified EPDs, published on Environdec (www.environdec.com) include:

Additional KI products including bespoke items have self-declared third party reviewed EPDs that have been produced by using the same calculator and standards.

If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more. 

Through over 500 tile designs, SBID Accredited Industry Partner, Parkside is a trusted tile specification company with the versatility to provide solutions for any commercial interior.

With a philosophy of developing thoughtful responses to the unique demands of clients and their projects, Parkside delivers a range of additional services including waterjet cutting, colour matching and bespoke digital print. Chymia, a collaboration between Mutina and Laboratorio Avallone is the latest porcelain tile collection available in full exclusively at Parkside.

Chymia fluctuates between the discipline of graphic design, expressive gestures of mark making and the two extremes of black and white, where symbols and textures are combined to create patterns of light and shadow on the surface. Black forms the basis, in a distinctive tone created by designer Gennaro Avallone, with the patterns taking on various shades of black all the way through to white. Throughout the collection, black and white are never separate but co-exist, with each pattern also available in white, taking on various shades all the way through to black in a reversal of role.

Each of the 22 (11 black, 11 white) designs in Chymia is obtained by combining the principle black and white structures with 11 patterned textures, achieving a tile that can be used randomly in monochrome compositions. The collection involved research on glazes and raw materials, along with the combination of traditional applications and modern technology to achieve the absolute colours used.

Chymia came to life in a collaborative project between ceramics manufacturer Mutina and Laboratorio Avallone, a Milan-based studio whose research reaches in to painting and sculpture to create unique objects of contemporary furnishing. The collection was developed with the aim of making a break with traditional styles, restoring an original quality to ceramics with unexpected outcomes.

Sarah Holey, marketing manager, Parkside: "Chymia is a collection that’s full of surprises. Taking the apparent simplicity of monochromatic pattern, it reveals that careful experimentation and attention to the creation of pure colours can bring depth and new-found results to a seemingly traditional black and white palette. Infusing new meaning into checkerboard or bringing more depth and nuance to all-over black or white, it offers some hugely exciting opportunities for designers and we’re delighted to welcome it to the Parkside portfolio."

If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more. 

Safety has always played an essential role in our design choices, but this is particularly true at the present time, driven by a genuine revolution in the way we organise our living spaces around post-pandemic lifestyles. This transformation has obliged us, starting from the design phase, to contemplate new hygiene measures that enable us to enjoy our living and working spaces in total freedom and safety.

SBID Accredited Industry Partner, RAK Ceramics, an international player renowned for its products and complete systems in porcelain and ceramic for floor and surface coverings, sanitaryware and bathroom fittings, has now launched RAK-Sanit, the company’s own health and safety revolution.

The research and development laboratories of RAK Ceramics are always at the forefront of technology and were the first in the world to supply antibacterial interior design solutions as early as 2009, thanks to the development of special certified antibacterial glazes.  ‎

Today, with the new RAK-Sanit programme, RAK Ceramics offers an even wider range of solutions for floors, surfaces and sanitary fittings, produced with glazes that reduce the possibility of contagion and therefore contribute to creating safer environments, both in residential and commercial projects.

RAK-Sanit is the ideal solution for domestic dwellings, modern and safer schools, public and private offices, restaurants, hotels, laboratories and, indeed, all those premises in which hygiene is of primary importance. All those places generally described as “community spaces”, in which numerous people of different ages, genders and cultures make random encounters. Inside, toilet facilities destined for use by all and sundry are increasingly in need of strong, antibacterial elements with a long product life.

RAK Sanit bathroom products in an interior setting

The RAK-Sanit bactericide action is permanent, guaranteeing built-in protection throughout the entire expected product lifetime, thanks to its constant action against microbial colonisation; this technology, which has proved its capacity to reduce or eliminate the quantity of bacteria up to 99.99%, including MRSA, E. Coli, Salmonella and Legionella, actively prevents the growth of microorganisms 24 hours a day.

In more detail, the RAK-Sanit programme comprises:

Solutions for floor and wall coverings in gres porcelain and ceramic, treated with an incorporated glaze that is 99.9% effective in just 8 hours. The products for floor and wall covering solutions are tested and certified* in compliance with the Japanese Standard JIS - 2801:2000 and the International Standard ISO 27447:2019.

Solutions for sanitaryware (WC, bidets, washbasins, toilet seats and lids, rinsing systems) treated with RAK-ProTeK glaze fired at high temperatures onto the ceramic to guarantee a smoother antibacterial surface, unlike standard ceramic material with its rougher surface.

The silver ions bind to the cells: once inside, silver denatures the enzymes essential to the production of energy. Being unable to produce energy, the bacteria are unable to reproduce. This technology is therefore able to reduce or eliminate the quantity of bacteria up to 99.99% and its action is effective against a vast range of gram positive and gram negative bacteria, as well as fungi. RAK-ProTeK glaze has been tested by the Artest laboratory in the Italian ceramic district of Modena.

*Certified effectiveness

RAK-Sanit tiles are tested by CERFRIT Laboratory – USA, according to the Japanese Standard JIS Z 2801:2000. This Standard specifies the testing methods to evaluate antibacterial activity and efficacy on bacteria on the surface of the products.

RAK-Sanit tiles are tested by METS Laboratory – UAE, according to the International Standard ISO 27447:2019. This Standard specifies the test method for antibacterial activity of semiconducting photocatalytic materials.

Test method for the determination of the antibacterial activity of materials that contain a photocatalyst or have photocatalytic films on the surface, by measuring the enumeration of bacteria under irradiation of ultraviolet light.

If you'd like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more. 

Join SBID

Join SBID

Find out more about our flexible membership structure.

Apply Online