Rough with the smooth - designers talk materials


Architecture and design experts were encouraged to go against the grain and openly discuss their feelings about texture in interior design at a recent FX design seminar. Gareth Gardner reports.


fx

Do you like it rough? Or do you prefer your surfaces perfectly slick and smooth? Whatever your predilection, there's no argument that texture plays a key role in architecture and interiors. From providing acoustic damping to delivering a stimulating multisensory experience, texture is part of the fabric of design.

So it is hardly surprising that FX recently decided to host an informal round-table debate on the merits of texture. Experts from the worlds of architecture and design gathered together at the swish Mayfair headquarters of The Interiors Group, to enjoy a glass of vino rosso, let their inhibitions drop and get touchy feely.

The debate was hosted within the HQ's 'entrance zone' and adjacent meeting room, themselves a case study in successfully deploying texture in a design project. The Scott Brownrigg-designed interior features shiny Flowcrete floors and Barrisol ceilings, alongside the more tactile finish of carpets incorporating fibres supplied by specialist manufacturer Antron, sponsor of the FX seminar.

With designers from the full gamut of industry sectors - not only spanning architecture and design but also specialist areas such as residential, healthcare, workplaces, hotels and retail - the seminar was bound to expose diverse opinions. As FX editorial director Theresa Dowling stated: 'Texture is as important as colour, but how does thinking about texture translate across different sectors or product types?' For example, texture might be a core consideration when specifying flooring for a hotel, but less important when choosing lighting products in a workplace.

Anna Dejlova (The Interiors Group) is in conversation with Theresa Dowling (FX magazine)
Anna Dejlova (The Interiors Group) is in conversation with Theresa Dowling (FX magazine)

Ryder Architecture associate Jon Humphreys said some sectors might value texture more than others: 'It comes down to what value the client will put onto texture.' However, certain scenarios would definitely require greater consideration of texture, for example a care environment for people with dementia or sensory deprivation. 'Suddenly texture is the number one thing, it's central,' he said.

Spa design is a further example of where texture if of paramount importance, explained Jason Turner, principal at HLW International: 'It's a place where you actually touch stuff, where you are walking barefoot.'

Mark Doohan (Falconer Chester Hall) with Theresa Dowling
Mark Doohan (Falconer Chester Hall) with Theresa Dowling

What lies beneath - otherwise known as flooring - is also of particular interest to Pernille Stafford, managing director of Resonate Interiors. She has been looking at ceramic tiles which mimic timber floors, throwing up issues about authenticity as well as texture. 'Why are we not buying timber floors when we are buying ceramic tiles that look like timber floors?' she asked.

MoreySmith senior designer Dani Salamon echoed her concerns. 'Concrete is another big one,' she added. Salamon is working on a major office project and originally envisaged specifying poured concrete or precast tiles in the cafe area. 'We would normally never encourage anyone to go against that,' she explained. 'But the better the manufacturers are getting at these imitation concrete tiles, the more we are now trying to push for them. They are amazing and suddenly open up new possibilities, such as with maintenance.' The project has entailed trying to convince the client, which has a track record of using 'authentic' products such as timber and concrete, to embrace imitations that may actually perform better.

Mark Doohan (Falconer Chester Hall) with Jon Tollit
Mark Doohan (Falconer Chester Hall) with Jon Tollit

Novelty may be another reason why materials that mimic the look and texture of others are specified on projects. 'Perhaps it's about achieving a novelty factor,' said Turner. When you see an industrial material like concrete used incongruously in a retail or hospitality environment, or specify tiles with a timber pattern 'it's playing that game where we know it's synthetic but we are going to have a playful reference to a natural material'. Stafford agreed: 'I was looking at a ceramic tile with timber grain, but it was in a grey white. So it didn't even look like brown timber. It's not really trying to be a timber finish.'

Jon Humphreys (Ryder Architecture)
Jon Humphreys (Ryder Architecture)

Gensler principal Jon Tollit believes that imitation might not just be about delivering a desired look or texture while using a material that performs to necessary specifications, but about a general conservatism when it comes to using new materials. 'Is it because we haven't yet developed a language for these man-made materials that is fully acceptable, so we apply memory, tradition and culture on top of something that can perform perfectly well as it is?' he asked. 'You have to dress them up even though the performance is absolutely perfect.'

For Mark Doohan, director at Falconer Chester Hall Architects, embracing lookalikes throws up ethical dilemmas. 'A designer is naturally averse to any material that lies about what it actually is,' he said, reaching for the moral high ground. 'As a designer I wrestle with the question of integrity. So when I specify a material and want to achieve a certain look, feel or touch, I want to make sure it's also the material that people think it is.'

Pernille Stafford (Resonate Interiors)
Pernille Stafford (Resonate Interiors)

However, he acknowledged that 'the problem is that these materials don't always perform in the environment in which you want to use them'. Reflecting further, he admitted: 'If I want to use wood in a shower or wetroom environment, then finding a tile that looks and even has the texture or undulation of timber, helping to achieve the look and feel of timber in new situations and new ways is exciting for clients.'

Anna Dejlova, senior designer at The Interiors Group, adds that the ceramic tile might also offer additional performance benefits such as a better slip rating than timber, further amplifying its advantages.

Jason Turner
Jason Turner (HLW Interntional)

Persuading clients to try something new is key to the ongoing creativity of the design industry, added Dowling. 'It's about trying to convince clients to be a bit more radical with the choice of materials that they use. Otherwise once you have been in this industry for 25 years you might still be rolling out products that you specified on your first commercial job.' And this might occur despite better-performing and more cost-effective solutions being available. Said Stafford: 'I think it's very client-driven in any sector. If you have an adventurous client in retail or workplace or hospitality, you can go out and be brave and choose all sorts of exciting materials.'

With such a broad church of designers and architects sitting around the table, the question inevitably arose of who is best at using textures in projects. For Tollit, 'architects have been notoriously bad in the past about the quality of interiors, and now it has come around that there is a much better synergy between all of those disciplines'. He believes interiors have become 'more architectural' while architects increasingly appreciate the quality of an interior rather than just the form of a building.

Neil Maguire (Antron) and Dani Salamon (MoreySmith)
Neil Maguire (Antron) and Dani Salamon (MoreySmith)

While everyone agreed that texture is equally applicable to both exteriors and interiors, Salamon counselled: 'Maybe it is easier to be more adventurous with interiors because the longevity is much shorter. And you have to go through a lot more to get something built.' Stafford agreed, adding that planning regulations can make it more challenging to incorporate textures into the urban landscape.

Of course, the use of texture or slick surfaces can create a signature for an architect or designer. Zaha Hadid is renowned for - and perhaps defined by - her curvaceous shiny smooth surfaces. These ultra-slick interiors didn't find favour with our guests. 'Ironing out the texture can give a lack of scale, which upsets me,' bemoaned Tollit. 'I like texture because it gives you scale, understanding and approachability.' Hadid is one of a handful of architects bestriding the global stage, designing everything from shoes to masterplans. 'But if there is no-one in the picture, you don't know which is which,' claimed Doohan.

Dani Salamon
Dani Salamon

Panellists regarded Patricia Urquiola as someone at the other end of the texture spectrum. 'I think of her as the complete opposite to Zaha in terms of texture and what she does with her furniture,' said Salamon. 'She always seems to push the boundaries. I might not like everything she does, but I like how different she can be.' Dowling added that her work is brave: 'She doesn't keep on repeating what has previously been successful. At the Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona she took enormous risks, doing things she had never done before.'

While the Mandarin Oriental is renowned for its exclusivity, texture isn't necessarily about luxury, added Tollit. 'It's about the senses, an experience of somewhere where you are actually participating in that atmosphere.' He added: 'It's not about luxury. I don't think texture means excessive quality or money or anything else. It's how you use that emotive quality of materials.'

Mark Doohan
Mark Doohan

Indeed quite the opposite could be true. Textures are sometimes used in projects where they have been 'found' or where more expensive, highly finished products could not be afforded. 'There is a lot going on now which is about undesign,' said Tollit. 'Whether it's about found objects, archaeology or stripping things away to see what you can find.' So the 'perfect design' that could perhaps define a Zaha Hadid project 'is an old model in my mind', he added. 'We are now struggling to understand what do we not need to design.'

Salamon agreed: 'I think the one thing that always works for interiors is when you look at what textures the building already has to offer.' This also helps to overcome any issues about including fashionable or faddish textures that will rapidly date. 'It's a good way of dealing with changing fashions, as the building isn't likely to change. It will be there for a long time. Something we might not appreciate now in 20 years' time we might be saying we can't believe it was ripped out.' Her advice: 'Take into account what you have got.'

Neil Maguire

Perfect design is also predicated on the idea that materials won't age. But when thinking about texture in projects, it is vital to understand how ageing will have an impact. 'The process of time, and the way things change and move, is positive,' said Tollit. 'It's looking for that personality and evolution after we have finished.' He finds inspiration in talking to landscape architects. 'Their attitude is much more interesting than architects, mostly because they let their projects go and allow things to happen, which is a lovely thing to do from a design point of view.'

If after all this you persist with slick surfaces, it is important to remember that smooth is still a texture. 'It is a design choice not to have any roughness or grade to a material,' says Doohan. 'As an architect or interior designer, you think about the way a space needs to feel or look, and achieving this through having or not having texture, colour, contrast and lighting. It's not a question of whether to have texture or not.'

Anna Dejlova
Anna Dejlova

Indeed lighting is a key consideration that goes hand-in-hand with texture. The way a material is illuminated can have a dramatic affect on how its texture is perceived. 'Lighting has a tandem impact,' said Turner. 'You can integrate LED lighting into materials and give them new properties.' Backlit translucent concrete has a totally different feel when in its unilluminated state.

 

'Materials will look completely different in different types of lighting,' he said. Whatever the sector, there was unanimous agreement that texture is of vital importance in design projects. Yet Doohan qualified this statement, stressing that it is hard to isolate texture from pattern, colour and space: 'They all relate to each other.' Meanwhile Stafford concluded that texture should not be thought of as optional extra. 'Where does texture stop and decoration start?' she asked. 'It shouldn't be a decorative add-on; it is part of everything that we all specify.'

Texture search
One thing is certain: when choosing textures you need to actually touch rather than simply look at materials online or in a glossy catalogue. ('Product literature is out of the window,' claims Jon Tollit, Gensler principal.) Visiting trade shows can be one useful way to experience new textures, or visiting one of the UK's specialist materials libraries. Scin - operated by FX regular contributor Annabelle Filer - was singled out for particular praise, especially her constant searching for innovative materials and unusual textures.

Working with regular suppliers and encouraging them to push their boundaries can be a successful way to explore and discover new textures, said seminar participants. 'We are getting more bespoke, making our interiors more individual,' said Resonate Interiors managing director Pernille Stafford. 'That's a texture thing in itself, ensuring a project isn't like the one next door.' As a result, she is calling on the services of small crafts companies that can deliver bespoke solutions.

Theresa Dowling (FX magazine)
Theresa Dowling (FX magazine)

'We should push our suppliers and manufacturers,' Stafford urges. 'You should go and visit their workshops and see what they can do. Pick up a piece of timber from one of their bins and ask what can be done with it.'

And if you really want to get to the cutting edge, it is important to keep an eye on new developments emerging through other industries.

Texture Case Study: LivingSocial
Specialist in local online deal-of-the-days LivingSocial has a new London HQ, fitted-out and refurbished by The Interiors Group, and featuring a sequence of quirky spaces alongside more functional office space. Texture is everywhere throughout the eye-catching interior, from fake grass to fuzzy pink carpet. There's even an amenity space where staff can down a pint of beer in their own pub. After that, it's possible to recline on a lounge chair in a beach area complete with palm trees. Other key zones include a schoolroom-style training area - with a vintage teacher's chair and desk - and a picnic-themed breakout space.

Dani Salamon (MoreySmith)
Dani Salamon (MoreySmith)

'With the need to work to a set budget, the combination of textured surfaces was key to maximise interest and accentuate areas of focus,' explains Anna Dejlova, senior designer at The Interiors Group. For example, 'within the meeting rooms, artificial grass and shag-pile carpets soften a space dominated by hard reflective surfaces. This creates both an acoustic and aesthetic balance.'

Texture case study: Aldwych House
A neighbour of Bush House - the august former home of the BBC World Service - Aldwych House is a landmark building located on the 'royal route' between Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral. The 15,000 sq m interior has been fully refurbished by MoreySmith to deliver a commercial development fit for royalty.

As MoreySmith senior designer Dani Salamon explains: 'The addition of texture to the interior was crucial.' A series of refurbishments during the late-20th century left a dated interior devoid of its original features. 'The uninviting interior was made up of hard and smooth surfaces,' she adds. 'We have done our best to reveal the beauty of the original building while adding significant new design features.'

A dramatic eight-storey atrium with new reception area draws people into the building. 'The brief from the client was to create an atmospheric space where workers can meet clients but also relax,' recounts Salamon. 'Opening up as well as softening the reception was key to achieving this.' All materials were chosen to deliver an elegant interior with luxurious, tactile touches.'

Texture Case Study: CBRE Global Investors
When HLW International designed the new UK headquarters for CBRE Global Investors, a variety of materials were incorporated to produce various textures. For example, different flooring finishes were used to help distinguish between activities taking place in the open-plan workspaces while a textured fabric was used throughout for screens to help unite the design.

At the heart of the workplace is a 'Town Square' that acts as a central hub. Textured materials including fabric, timber, metal, stone and woven vinyl were specified here, each used in a dedicated area, such as stone for circulation and vinyl for tea points. 'These materials were chosen for their practical durability,' adds HLW International principal Jason Turner.








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