Felt Ceilings Can Provide Safe, Cost-Effective, Pleasing Interior Environment, Experts Agree Ahead of Cityscape Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Interior design innovation will drive the UAE’s USD 820 billion construction pipeline, and transform visitor and resident experiences, industry experts announced today ahead of Cityscape Abu Dhabi, running from 17-19 April.
Boosted by mega-projects such as Expo 2020 Dubai, and a steady stream of homes, offices, and mixed-use developments, a recent report by MEED shows that the UAE has a massive USD 820 billion construction project pipeline. The wider Middle East and North Africa’s project pipeline is worth USD 1.6 trillion, according to BMI Research.
Increasingly, Middle East projects are integrating interior design from the beginning of the project design, with innovations serving as a key differentiator for enhancing daily lives, argues the global architecture and design consultancy Hunter Douglas.
“Interior designers across the UAE and the Middle East are pioneering the approach of integrating innovations, such as felt ceilings, from the design phase to transform the lived experience inside buildings. Cityscape Abu Dhabi is a key platform to educate the market how felt can provide a safe, cost-effective, attractive, and sustainable approach to ceilings,” said Santhosh Vallil, Sales Manager for the Middle East at Hunter Douglas.
Ahead of Cityscape Abu Dhabi, Hunter Douglas is seeing strong Middle East interest in its HeartFelt innovative modular and linear felt ceiling system. HeartFelt recently won a prestigious Red Dot Award, and is 100 percent recyclable and certified cradle-to-cradle.
Showing the strong results of felt ceilings, Dutch confectionary company Brand Masters called on architecture firm, Van Oers Weijers Architecten BNA, to deliver a design and build of high quality, inside and outside the building. Brand Masters became one of the world’s first companies to deploy HeartFelt in its entrance, hall, and showroom.
“Sometimes the architect’s role is to take risks and contribute a new material or a new solution.,” said Jeroen Weijers, Architect of Van Oers Weijers Architecten BNA. “This sense of quality is expressed in the building materials we used, the finishing on the inside and the clean lines of the whole design.”
Weijers says that HeartFelt’s sustainable and acoustic qualities also played a role in the choice for this ceiling system. “We applied HeartFelt mostly in the representative spaces, where customers and prospective clients are received, for example. Good acoustics are important in those spaces,” added Jeroen Weijers.
About Hunter Douglas
Hunter Douglas is a leading manufacturer of architectural ceiling and façade panels. For over 50 years the company has developed smart, aesthetic solutions aimed at warmth, light, noise and energy control. Hunter has always operated in partnership with the market: architects’ and designers’ challenges and ideas are at the basis of new products and services. For this reason, Hunter Douglas also partners with the Archiprix Foundation, a group of higher education institutions for architects, urban planners and landscape architects that offers talented, young designers an (inter)national platform.
This collaboration with various partners results in inspiring solutions that make a difference for architects, designers and building users all over the world. For example, HeartFelt, Hunter Douglas’ new ceiling system made of felt, won the Red Dot Award 2017’s highest distinction in the Product Design category. The jury stated that with HeartFelt, Hunter Douglas “has made one of the best products of 2017”. Hunter Douglas is active in more than 100 countries and has around 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit www.hunterdouglas.ae.