Flooring Focus: Designer choices

Soraya Khan, Director, Theis + Khan

Soraya Khan, Director, Theis + Khan

'The flooring sets the tone of a space. It gives you the first clue as to what the space might be used for, guiding you around the building, and leading you visually down a line or into a wide space where you pause. It can reflect light or dim it. It can sharpen sound or muffle it. The colour and texture can make you feel warm or sombre, formal or relaxed. Flooring appeals to all your senses, and as the base for all movement it is of utmost importance and critical to get right.

'We use all types of flooring depending on the feel and use of the space we're designing. In the RIBA office headquarters building in London that we've just finished, we used resin throughout the ground floor as a reference to the stone flooring in the main building at 66 Portland Place. The resin is cool and seamless, formal and yet contemporary. We also use engineered timber boards, engineered because they are better suited to cope with underfloor heating.

'We are really pleased with the flooring specified at RIBA. We used Bolidtop 525 resin, supplied and installed by Stratum flooring. All the offices and meeting rooms have Airmaster carpet by Desso, and the ceramic floor tiling by Porcelanosa is looking smart in the WCs. 'For a private house in Notting Hill Gate that we are working on, we've just specified an oak finished board produced by Naos Floors that is exquisite. We also like the linoleum from Forbo Nairn as it is hardwearing, warm and smells wonderfully of linseed oil, and also because it is natural and sustainable.

For RIBA offices Theis + Khan specified Desso carpet and large-format slate tiles from Mandarin
For RIBA offices Theis + Khan specified Desso carpet and large-format slate tiles from Mandarin

'The carpet that we used in our own office building in Bateman's Row and in the RIBA offices is from Desso, which we chose because not only does it look great but it is specially designed to reduce dust particles in the atmosphere and is completely sustainable. We've also used 600mm x 900mm slate tiles from Mandarin flooring, which looks great and has a great riven texture underfoot, with underfloor heating.

'Flooring by its very nature gets worn very quickly, so when addressing best value then the issue of longevity cannot be ignored. We've used plywood, for example, for a short-term, quick groovy finish in a past house of ours, but it looked worn and small holes appeared after a short while. We would say that the best-value floors to be had that lasts well and are most robust would be Desso carpet and Forbo Nairn linoleum.

'If money was no object, we'd love to use Dinesen flooring. We've had a Dinesen oak sample as a chopping board for about 15 years, and considering all the knife action it's taken it has stood up so well and still looks great!'

Theis + Khan

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