Contract Textile International

Heimtextil And Ait Present The 7th Innovation Award Architecture Textile Object

Volume 2 / May-August 2010

Architects visited all the relevant fair halls looking for new generations of innovative products from contract furnishing textiles, textile room partitioning and solar protection systems, wall coverings, wallpaper and furniture of special interest to architects and interior designers

Architectural trade magazines AIT and xia IntelligenteArchitektur awarded the 7th Innovation Award Architecture Textile Object at the leading international fair Heimtextil 2010. The competition for architecture and design was launched with the aim of honoring those textile solutions, from the host available on the market, which correspond to the needs and requirements of architects in a special way. The key criteria for the jury’s assessment are functional and design quality, material authenticity and functional diversity. The Innovation Award attracted a good response from right across the sector.

Among the products submitted were carpets, wallpapers, fabrics, acoustic components and blinds. The jury of five well-known architects and interior designers had to base their decision on the architectural quality of the submissions.

For the first time in 2010, an additional stage, innovative trend scouting, was added to the traditional procedure followed for the Innovation Award Architecture Textile Object. On the first day of the fair, architects visited all the relevant fair halls looking for new generations of innovative products from the following groups: contract furnishing textiles, textile room partitioning and solar protection systems, wall coverings, wallpaper and furniture of special interest to architects and interior designers. The 15 products most frequently named were put forward to the next stage of the evaluation process. On the second day of the fair, a final decision was taken on the winners of the trend scouting.

The highest prize category for the Innovation Award Architecture Textile Object was awarded to Gerber Spitzen & Stickereien GmbH for their ‘high-stick’ fabric. “I am absolutely thrilled,” announced Ulrich Gerber, Managing Director. “Our aim was merely to modernize the image of Plauen Lace. The fact that it was so well-received is terrific!”

A special award was presented to each of the following:

MHZ Hachtel GmbH & Co. KG for their pleated curtain
Object Carpet GmbH for their products Pebble Beach 600 / Vulcano 600 / Web Brilliance
An award also went to each of the following:

Anke Nippen for pure
Marburger Tapetenfabrik J.B. Schaefer GmbH & Co. KG for their Crush Lounge collection
Silent Gliss GmbH for Orientation, a next space design.
Jury members:

Susanne Leson, Leson Innenarchitektur, Frankfurt am Main
Diether Mehlo, KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, Frankfurt am Main
Bianca Lautenschläger, DESIGN IN ARCHITEKTUR, Darmstadt
Dieter Schmidt, Schmidt Holzinger Innenarchitekten, Rodgau
Petra Wörner, woernerundpartner planungsgesellschaftmbh, Frankfurt am Main
Following the jury session on Wednesday, 13 January 2010, trade visitors had a chance to get an idea of the quality of the products submitted. All the products entered for the competition went on show for the duration of the fair in an exhibition held in the Foyer of Hall 4.1. After Heimtextil, the winning products will feature in special editions of AIT und xia IntelligenteArchitektur magazines.