Innovation
Meets Design

During the 2019 Hard Surfaces exhibition at ExCeL London, visitors  enjoyed a MaterialDistrict* feature exploring the theme of Innovation Meets Design.  Honing in on ground-breaking hard materials for architecture and design, MaterialDistrict created a 200m² curated experience of 136 international surfaces.  Unexpected performance and innovative aesthetics in materials featured for their light weight, their recycled content, their durability and other distinct properties and visual appeal. These were hard surfaces you might never have seen before to excite and inspire you.

The development of hard materials is all about new surfaces, sustainable challenges, and creative digital techniques for smarter ways to add that wow-factor to construction. What are the latest developments? As well as those materials already familiar to the sector such as sintered, solid surfaces and quartz, how about cast basalt, industrial metallic finishes, spandrel glass, acoustic lightweight concrete, curvy natural stone paper or 3D printed structural support beams.   

MaterialDistrict selected 136 materials to highlight products such as recycled trash terrazzo, translucent materials, others that absorb CO², smart composites – even one combining stone with wood – water-absorbing tiles and much more…… you've got to see it… touch it… experience it to believe it.

There were products for exterior and interior use created to satisfy both form and function. They were products that surprise and arouse all your senses. 

Els Zijlstra, Founder & Creative Director of MaterialDistrict, delivered a free-to-attend session on Thursday 2 May that explores the latest innovations in Hard Surface design.

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Extremely hard tiles made for heavy industrial use, but also featuring a beautiful metallic sheen.

This material is a residue of the oil industry revealing the unique properties and aesthetic qualities of retreated asphalt.

Developed by Czech designers Gravelli, these concrete building blocks are partly translucent, due to added glass or polymer elements that let light through.

Rain(a)Way’s ‘Flood’ tile by Fien Dekker is an innovative tile that can visibly accommodate rainwater.  

Digital files are used to create highly detailed relief moulds into which liquid material is poured and then allowed to set before sealing. Different colours and finishes can be created by altering the ingredients, adding pigments or other materials.

These tiles are made of Icelandic lava and are ideal as a paving material.