Balance and calm are vital ingredients for any work area. That’s what Bolon’s new collection Elements sets out to achieve: a quiet statement. Join us as we dive deeper into the collection together with Bolon sisters Annica and Marie Eklund.
“Elements about going into nature,” says Marie Eklund, Bolon’s CEO. “For us, it’s a collection based around classic Scandinavian design.” At this point Annica Eklund, Bolon’s creative director, interjects. “But the other very important thing,” she says, “is that Elements is really a collection which broadens out the kind of spaces Bolon can work in.”
The Elements collection represents new territory for Bolon. As the flooring company has grown and developed, it has received a number of requests to provide flooring for large-scale projects: sprawling spaces whose sheer footprint presents challenges for architects trying to provide high-quality flooring on the required scale.
Annica & Marie Eklund
“It’s important to understand how Bolon flooring can be a good element for architects and we always want to help to design rooms where people feel good,” says Marie. “You want to create a warm atmosphere that embraces you with good design, colour and material,” adds Annica, who further explains that Bolon wanted to develop a new collection that would possess all of the brand’s design values, but in a way that felt appropriate for large-scale developments. “Bolon flooring is one element in a total environment,” she says, “but it’s a very important element.”
“We want to create a warm atmosphere that embraces you with good design, colour and material
– an ambience where people feel good."
It was this line of thought that provided the idea behind Elements, a new collection intended to make Bolon flooring available to a wider audience than ever before. The collection encompasses a range of 10 designs, all of which are made from recycled materials and which are available in both rolls and tiles. “There’s a small touch of colour, but it’s a soft-colour range,” says Marie. “It’s hints of oranges, reds and blues. The colour is there, but it’s not dominating.”
Indeed, Elements is based around these ideas of balance and quietness. To make the collection possible, Bolon’s design team developed a new profiled yarn called the H-thread, which provides a soft, harmonious aesthetic, while also proving robust and versatile enough to meet the functional demands of large-scale spaces with a high footfall. Installed across large areas, Elements needs to not only stand up to wear and tear, but also to provide a visual that doesn’t feel invasive or brash, and which can endure over the course of a project’s lifespan.
For inspiration, Bolon turned to nature. “We always start development by talking about what kind of feeling a collection will be able to give us, and for this we wanted something very calm and natural,” says Marie. “It’s a practical flooring, but you still need to design it so that it’s part of a space you would want to be in for a long time. Bolon is for people who are interested in and really appreciate design, and alongside that we’re a Swedish company, so we enjoy working in the Scandinavian design tradition of looking at nature. We wanted a collection that would feel at home alongside wood, glass and natural stones.”
Elements Flint
Elements Birch
This article was originally published in Projects We Love.
