SITUATION
Rolf Benz is Germany’s best-known, design-oriented furniture brand. Worldwide, it’s known for premium furniture, a classy look and outstanding quality. The manufacturer recently decided to redesign the exhibition centre at its headquarters in Nagold, Germany.
SOLUTION
The outcome is impressive: an elegant cube houses the new, central reception along with three showrooms. A distinctive decorative floor displays a unique character, providing the Rolf Benz entrée with a prestigious feel and perfectly augmenting the sense of high-quality spaciousness. The modern cube, made of concrete and glass, was designed as a joining element linking two existing buildings. The plain cube was chosen to express restraint, in terms of its shape and material, resulting in modern, high-quality architecture.
The challenge was to produce the 400 square metres of flooring for the new entrée in the centre of the complex whose appearance corresponded to that of the two older, adjoining halls. The highly frequented floors in the reception area called for an extremely hard-wearing material that, at the same time, was very flexible in its design and would forge a link with the existing floors. PANDOMO Loft by ARDEX was chosen; an extremely durable, decorative smoothing compound with an unusual surface finish that can be installed particularly quickly.
Three layers of thinly troweled PANDOMO Loft were applied to the underlying cement screed in a light shade of gray. To achieve the required finish matching the neighboring halls, it was decided to design a smooth, calm look using a special technique to achieve the look-and-feel of the existing magnesite screeds: when it came to troweling the final layer, instead of using the usual special tools recommended for light floors, they used plain metal trowels, creating the unique metal patina – a sort of “used look”.
The outcome delighted the planners and clients alike. The floors are one of a kind, highly individual, spacious and virtually seamless bearing their own distinctive signature.
