Gotta Serve Somebody

Artek x Forbo Linoleum challenge a new generation of design talent

For over 80 years Artek and Forbo Flooring Systems have worked together to produce many of Artek's best-loved designs. To celebrate a relationship typified by a shared commitment to the highest standards of quality, the brands invited young design students to experiment with the two materials with which Artek and Forbo are most intimately associated: wood and linoleum.

Investigate and re-examining

This page shows the results of material investigation driven design course by 14 MA students from Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture in Finland.

The project aimed at re-examining the culture of hospitality, how do we serve, entertain, host, amuse and enjoy the company of others. Students studied the functional properties of linoleum through hands-on experimentation and by building 1:1 scale furniture prototypes.

Pedro García Alcázar

Leize

"Leize" means cavern in Basque, this tubular coffee table is the result of a material-structural form-finding process using plywood and linoleum. The flat and rigid surface of the table is created by folding materials in perpendicular directions. The gentle wave keeps the light and warm feeling of the wood inside while the colourful linoleum is used on the outside giving the durable and characteristic finishing.

Hemmo Honkonen

Notko

Notko is a side table for lounge and lobby spaces. The idea behind the table was to demonstrate the flexible properties of linoleum with a loosely hanging linoleum loop. The hanging loop, which acts as a magazine pocket, provides an interesting contrast between a free formed organic shape and the strict geometrical frame construction. The two different table top shapes are the outcome of an investigation of numerous different shapes and constructions to find a form that supports and demonstrates the linoleum loop in the most favorable way.

Jie Luo

Phi

The name of the low shelf phi comes from the symbol ɸ, which is resemble to the section of the design. And its rigid wooden frame features with flexible linoleum surface makes it friendly and invites people to use.

Mili-Mona Salokannel

Viisto

Viisto is designed for a smaller living space. This foldable table is perfect for entertaining when there otherwise would not be enough table space. The table top doubles as a serving tray for added convenience. The linoleum makes the table durable and ensures that the table retains its form throughout its use.

Reetta Vartiala

Dulce

A side table for lighter joyful moments: material and soft shapes of the side table rehearse the theme of the nostalgic time that the new generation is living for their first time so far only.

Sini West

Plum

Plum side table has a spacious container component that works as a storage unit for tableware and its lid functions as a protective cover as well as a table top. By removing the container, Plum transforms into an agile small table for serving and intimate moments. Sandblast treatment of the linoleum offers a surface quality with increased friction preventing sliding and a smooth and soft feel inviting for interaction by touching.

Jinghua Zeng

Torii

It is interesting to explore how to combine linoleum and veneer in different ways and to find the tube structure light but strong. Inspired by the Japanese Torii, I designed and made a coat stand and matched coat hangers with this fantastic material structure and texture contrast.

Hogeschool van Amsterdam

ON-OFFice - A collaboration of students of the HVA Design Lab, Royal Ahrend and Forbo Flooring

The 5th Forbo Flooring Student Challenge has been in collaboration with the office furniture brand Royal Ahrend. The project ‘On-OFFice’ refers to the contemporary office environment and the easy acces to information that enables people to work 24/7 from anywhere.

During one semester a group of 4th year students of the HVA Designlab in Amsterdam researched ‘alternative’ working environments. New requirements were defined and translated into proposals for innovative product designs.

Tim Brouwer

Contra Digital

As response to the increasing time spend in the digital environment Tim designed a series of ultra tangible desk accessories. The pentagonal containers of different sizes are made out of Bulletin Board. Removing the jute backing of the Bulletin Board left the imprint of a ‘natural’ grid. The stone like colors create a perfect match with these ‘raw’ objects and offer a nice contrast with the high tech materials these boxes contain.

Guido Lok

Reversible & adjustable

This concept for an easy to disassemble lounge chair seems to fit seamlessly well in the emerging attention for ‘circular product design’.
For the seating Guido developed an ingenious concept. Two disk shaped layers of Furniture linoleum were stitched together creating a flexible durable surface. The sitting position of the user can be influenced by the way the Furniture Linoleum disk is folded, the tighter the straighter the sitting posture will be. The result is a simple adjustable chair without having to use complex mechanisms. Combining two different Furniture Linoleum colors creates reversible seating.

Wink Houtzager

Wiggle

De ‘Wiebel’ (wiggling-rocking) stool promotes the concept of ‘active’ sitting. With UPM multiplex a basic bended shape was created. For the upholstering different linoleum products were used. Bulletin Board has been applied on the seating area for its resilience and its soft touch. Marmoleum was selected for the parts of the tumbler which touch the floor thus making use of the extreme durability of this linoleum product. For the integrated handles Furniture Linoleum offered the possibility to work more in detail.

Nathalie de Boer

Defocus

Nathalie de Boer created a pouf made out of folded Bulletin Board. The top of the pouf is flexible due to the folding technique. The inflatable and flexible core creates resistance when pressure has been applied. The instability of the pouf forces the user to actively find the right balance while seating. In her concept Nathalie refers to the theory that a slight body movement while sitting helps the brain to defocus and to prepare for the next level of concentration.

Tom Klijnstra

Feedback

Tom designed a 3 dimensional rotatable pin-board. By milling a pattern into the Bulletin Board he made the material more flexible and easy to bend.

A multi functional product, as well for pinning ideas as to be used as a seperation wall to create more privacy. An additional part of the concept is the rotatable surface. When wanting to share the pinned ideas/ sketches one can decide to rotate the surface of the board (conveyor belt principle) in order to make the notes visble to colleagues.

Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti

NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, is an internationally renowned art and design academy located at the center of Milan’s world-famous design scene. Founded in 1980, NABA is the largest private art academy in Italy. It offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in Italian and in English

Ksenia Lukyanonva

PLAYSTATIONERY
A collection of small useful/useless tabletop accessories. It includes an A4 size box with a cover, which can be used as mouse-pad.

Cap pad mats for a big coffee break, a pencil box and small cases which also can function as a business card holder.

The collection was created to showcase the potential of linoleum with its endless possibilities of colours combinations.

Claudia Renate Mantik, Medhavi Tyagi, Zeynep Gökcek

Illuminari
An interactive table lamp designed for a playful and adjustable work environment. Linoleum being eco-friendly, heat resistant and having multiple colours makes it an ideal material to be used for the surface of this lamp concept.

For this design the Linoleum was applied, two sided, on plywood panels. Then a CNC machine was used to cut the circular shapes. The 15 elements can be personalized in any combination according to the preference of the user.

Stefano Sabatè

Tacos
Designed by Stefano Sabatè
A magazine rack minimally designed to take advantage of Furniture linoleum’s potential: fair, flexibility and thin sheets available in a wide range of colours that look elegant and sophisticated. The design consists of two elements, a thin metal clip that acts as a load-bearing structure that blocks the disk (two linoleum sheets previously glued together).

Dorico Moderno
A set of vases, which changes depending on how they are flipped over or stacked. The smallest of the series can be used as a paperweight, the 2nd as a penholder, the third as a vase for flowers. The two-dimensional material is transformed into three-dimensional objects: first by gluing and then by lathing solid blocks of bulletin linoleum. Compositions are endless...

Valeria Foti, Francesca Cardano and Alessia Bernardo

Leubra
The design for Leubra is based on the flexibility and malleability of the linoleum. By weaving the Furniture linoleum in a semi open pattern the partition panel provides the user a glimpse of the work environment that surround him.

The front façade is made out of pin-board linoleum and can be used as an interactive board to pin memos or other personal documents on. A versatile foldable object that easily can be moved around.

Yu-xiu Zhang

Flessi Fiori
A decorative flower design to be used stationary containers for on an office desk.

Each container is made out of one flat piece of linoleum and transformed into a 3D shape by using the flexibility of the material.

Vanya & Aaneri

ROLL.ETTE
The concept of ROLL.ETTE is to create a product, which is modular and flexible.
Roll.ette is a storage box for tabletop stationary used in an office environment.

The box is designed with a flexible opening and closing mechanism based on the bending properties of linoleum. The concept can be used for various office storage items.

Huang Yi Nuo and Cheng Shi Yu

Moonlight
By gluing, cutting and sculpturing linoleum hand-made stationery was created. Designed for the office use ‘Moonlight’ creates an environment especially for meditation and relaxation.

Though each object looks like one solid piece it can be opened and used as storage box for your secrets or bad mood.

Alessandra Spiccia

Soft-linoleum
For this modern translation of the Japanese Tatami Alessandra sealed two sheets of Furniture linoleum together with a foam layer in between. Thus creating a resilent soft surface. The project focuses on the creation of soft modules that could cover different volumes, floors and walls to create more comfortable environments.

With a system of panels of different thicknesses the designs offers the possibility to create a landscape where people will be able to relax. To take off their shoes and experience the softness of the linoleum. ' Soft-linoleum' aims to improve relaxing areas in the working environment.

Evangelos Stylianos Theofilas

Linoleum rucksack
Evangelos Stylianos Theofilas created a fashionable laptop rucksack by elegantly combining two natural materials: linoleum and felt. In this project he approached the Furniture linoleum as a sustainable alternative for leather.

A beautiful detail is the perforated pattern that he added in the linoleum. An elastic rope was used to ‘stitch’ it all together thus creating an entirely new perspective on the identity of linoleum.

Giacomo Conti and Aniello Greco

Space divider-desk
With their concept for a modular, foldable, lightweight space divider-desk Giacomo Conti and Aniello Greco responded in a smart way to the current need for flexible office environments.

By incorporating a ‘pop-up’ desk in the divider and by designing these panels as expandable modules it offers interesting new solutions. As core honeycomb cardboard material was used which was upholstered on both sides with linoleum.

Namık Yiğit Ildaş

Playful speaker
Namık Yiğit Ildaş designed and built a speaker for in a meeting room. To be placed centrally on the table when having a telephone conference. A circular wooden frame was upholstered with bulletin board on the sides.

For the top he designed a removable lit made out of furniture linoleum and engraved with a pattern. A nice playful detail is of this design is that the top can be easily replaced by another color and pattern.

Tommaso Lago, Silvia Fiorini and Barbara Li Rosi

Magnetic coasters
In this concept linoleum was used to make magnetic coasters for the servings in the office of drinks or food. By adding magnetic paper on the back of the linoleum the coasters can be used on a metal tray. The top of the Furniture linoleum is decorated with an embossing in various patterns.

Rawan Nour Chamoun

Rawan Nour Chamoun used the Furniture linoleum in its most common application: as table top.

In her concept she combined pattern with functionality. She designed an integrated loose lay pattern of tools used in the creative process.

Her lay-out of her table top shows the different scenarios of using a furniture table top, referring to the properties of linoleum and to the various working scenarios (as sketchpad, as meeting place, as coffee table…)

HDK Academy of Design and Crafts

After the successful collaboration with de Willem de Kooning Academy in 2015 Forbo Flooring decided to initiate a follow up project.

For the 2nd edition of our Student Challenge we approached the Wood Oriented Furniture Design HDK – Academy of Design and Crafts at Steneby located in Dals Långed in Sweden, see their website

Gathering

In this project students worked with the concept of "Gathering". A multi-faceted concept exploring two meanings of the term: "Gathering" as a union of people and "Gathering" as collecting materials, joints and materials meetings. This has come together also in a website

In the center of the project stood the table as a meeting place and venue for different activities taking place around it. Each student was given the task to identify, select and explore an activity that occurs around a table and to design one or many objects that dealt with this activity in any way.

Kombucha

Alice Huldtin designed a beautiful range of products around the famous Russian Kombucha elixer. This “Immortal Health Elixir” has been around for more than 2,000 years and has a rich anecdotal history of health benefits. Made from sweetened tea that’s been fermented by a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.

In her design Alice uses the desktop colours 4183 Pistachio and 4185 Powder which she combines in a very elegant way with other refined natural materials. The setting of these skillfully crafted products associates with the traditional Japanese tea ceremonies.

Crokinole

The earliest known Crokinole board was made end of the 19th century in Canada. This ‘family’ game is like a shuffleboard in round where players take turn flicking disks on a board.

Anke Dold designed a multi functional board. When not playing the game the backside of the board can be used as an announcement board, the black desktop, 4023 nero, functions as a blackboard. Together with the board a lamp was designed to create a cozy intimate atmosphere.

Fire (escape) - reconnect with craft

Joe Clark had a hands-on approach and experimented extensively with both Furniture Linoleum and Bulletin board. Very skillfully he crafted a range of beautiful objects in which the versatility of the material can be experienced.

For his project Fire (Escape) he laminated Furniture linoleum onto veneer to provide a curvaceous yet strong surface. The starting point for a series of wonderfully made organic shaped containers.

In his skillfully crafted prototypes he underlines the importance to reconnect with practical skills in order to counterbalance human dependence on modern technology.

'Kuvert' - table artifacts

Johan Andersson created table artifacts; abstract shapes inspired on and referring to cutlery.
He researched how the table setting and cutlery affect the social meeting around the dinner table.

As a result he created a set of abstract cutlery that opens up for new experiences around the dinner table. Beautiful and intriguing objects to be used as conversation pieces. To feed the dialogue during meals and to challenge existing table conventions.

Also see his video Student video Andersson

'Interface' - a giant postcard

Inspired by the need for a physical interface in a café like setting Lisha Li designed a tray, which can be used to carry a refreshment but also to write a message on or to make notes. After use the tray can be hung on the wall presenting a personal text. With her design Lisha Invites people to step out of their digital environment into the real world and make contact.

The furniture linoleum surface has a spray-brushed area to separate the writing zone from the food and beverages. A laser cut holder for the oil crayon is incorporated into the surface.

'Kuttingen' - a flexible vessel

To make life easier Sofia Nilsson thought up a transport vessel to be used to carry young plants from one owner to the other. The container consists out of two layers of furniture linoleum; by making incisions in the furniture linoleum it becomes a flexible and foldable material. To be used for either transport or as a display or even as a mobile pop-up separation wall for in the office to create your own atmosphere.

See her video Student video Sofia Nilsson

'Illumination' - the poetry about properties

Robert Curran made some beautiful poetic and refined objects. By treating the materials in a special way he was able to push the boundaries of the material properties of the furniture linoleum. Objects seeming to belong in a Wunderkammer.

'Mokita'- the elephant in the room

How to make a group discussion more enjoyable, how to deal with the lingering 'elephant in the room', to talk about difficult subjects and overcome our fears of conflict.

Mariska Lamiaud created a ‘talking stick’ in the shape of an abstracted elephant head which can be held when wanting to tackle the elephant in the room. With her concept she makes the problem tangible, something we can grasp, talk about and pass on. An object that creates space for everyone to speak their opinion.

Mister Potato head

Tung-yun Wang created a postmodern mister potato head like cupboard for children with magnetic elements which can be repositioned. Thus changing the expression of the face.

'Steam Modules' - Fika x Tachinomi x Bulletin Board

How to improve the efficiency of a meeting was the question student Yang Yong Kang tried to tackle. What is needed to create the ultimate environment for information exchange. His conclusion is that providing space for a dynamic break with a constant flow was the key. Yang Yong Kang designed a modular station by mixing the concept of the Swedish Fika, coffee-break ritual with the Japanese Tachinomi, standing bar, and the Dutch Bulletin (pin) board. The result is a layered modular station with a organic fluid shape.

See his video Student video Yang Yong Kang

Willem de Kooning Academy

The Willem de Kooning Academy is based in the Netherlands and has international students from all over the world. The academy offers contemporary and cutting edge art courses that complement changing, international practice.

Forbo Flooring got in contact with the Willem de Kooning Academy to discuss whether a student challenge with our Pinboard linoleum and Furniture linoleum was feasible.

The first student challenge 2015 took place in Rotterdam at the Willem de Kooning Academy.

Kim van Nispen

Plynoleum | a free-standing linoleum

Furniture Linoleum is presented as a semi finished product and in general used by the Furniture industry as a coloured finish on furniture. This inspired Kim to look whether it also could be used as a free-standing material without needing a carrier. With various layers of Furniture Linoleum she created ‘Plynoleum’. The next step was to research the bounderies of bending radius of the ‘plynoleum’ by applying various bendding techniques such as vacuum molding. By using different linoleum colours the separate layers stay visible adding an extra element of beauty to the material. Her Plynoleum stool has been very well received and has been presented at various Design fairs.

Joost Dingemans

Looped | 3 dimensional Bulletin Board

Joost Dingemans explored ways in which Forbo’s semi-finished Bulletin Board material could be utilized 3 dimensionally. With his concept he created a statement towards the strength of the material and demonstrated that there are applications possible that go beyond the flat and vertical.
With the two layers of Bulletin Board he created a modular structure made out of loops thus emphasizing the flexibility of the material. The net structure aims to encourage an active lifestyle in an office like environment.

Kätlin Mikker

Rocking Chair | slip resistant and upside down

The non slippery and allergy free properties of Bulletin Board lead Kätlin to find a target group that could benefit the most from these values.
Her idea was to create a rocking chair for children on which they can swing alone or together, store their toys, turn it upside down to use it as a bridge. While being a specific furniture piece it still lets children use their creativity and imagination. The rocking chair was created with the intention to inspire new ideas for the usage of Forbo’s materials.

Jan Wagenaar

Tessa

Tessa watches over your personal stuff . The two sleeves offer space to store your smartphone, or a good book. The flexible slots fit easily around your belongings and make sure it is within reach. A small tab remains present to pull the sleeves open. The unique flexibility of Forbo’s Bulletin Board makes sure the slots spring back after fitting something in it. Tessa is made out of Ash wood and Bulletin Board, both natural and durable materials