The Base Element

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How flooring becomes an expression of sustainability and style.

As any good service company knows, because people can’t intuitively gauge your success from the quality of what you produce, they sub-consciously judge you on the tangible signals you send out – your clothes, your cars, your offices. That’s why corporate lawyers spend so lavishly on their waterfront premises, and even why McDonalds invests so much in maintaining crisp modern outlets.

And in today’s business environment, our instinctive judgment has become refined to the point where it’s no longer enough just to look good – to be considered a smart operator your building must perform well too.

AXA Assurance, which is one of Europe’s largest insurance conglomerates, know this well.

Before moving into their new Paris HQ, AXA extensively modified the building inside and out to make it more sustainable and livable for it’s inhabitants. They put function first, but they still cared deeply about style.

It’s no surprise really that they chose Sorona Greenpad carpet tiles for flooring throughout their offices. The maize-based fibre is not only sustainably produced, but highly robust, and offers a wide range of colours and textures to suit all tastes.

Rather than choosing one of the textured variants, AXA chose Rondo, which is a flat, flecked tile boasting a range of 48 vibrant colours. The dominant shade used was a light grey, which accentuated the crisp white walls, and cues for the highlights came from a variety of sources – monotones to match the art on the wall, browns to match the desk-tops, and bright colours to match the soft furnishings. Even the use of darker greys drew inspiration from the mosaic of shadows cast across the room.

The end result is a delightfully light and vibrant atmosphere, which will be a pleasure to work in for years to come.

Classy dining in an auto showroom raises some unique issues, like how to keep out dirt and moisture without distracting from the ambience within.

Marketing cars has become somewhat of an art form in recent years. Fast disappearing are the dusty yards stacked with rows of autos, and in comes bespoke business showcases as car companies get more and more clever at attracting new costumers.

Ebbetts Waikato have taken this to a whole new level by opening a chic café designed by another Hamilton icon – Chow Hill - right inside their showrooms in East Hamilton.

Wedged in the spacious atrium between the Audi & Volkswagen showrooms ‘Osten’ (which is German for ‘East’), caters to the upper middle class professionals who are prime candidates for a new RS or GTI. And while we could wax lyrical about the tantalizing treats they serve, we really want to draw your attention to the décor.

Like all things Teutonic, the minimalist design is crisp and functional, right down to the grand entrance. The large glass sliding doors open onto a large patio, and can be retracted to allow for al fresco dining or the occasional egress of autos (should that be required). To keep the insides clean, without distracting from the design, interior designers Material Creative turned to Advance Flooring for help.

The solution lay in the robust ‘ExtraTread’ Entrance Matting System utilizing extra-wide intense wear polyamide infills in a stylish aluminium frame. The sleek low profile system is highly slip resistant, moisture absorbent, and traps dirt on specially designed corrugated rails.

The low profile enhanced both attractiveness and strength, and was fabricated to exact size in Advance’s Auckland factory. Installation was completed in a matter of hours, and (incidentally) a matter of hours from opening (allowing for all the nasty equipment to be removed and the floors cleaned prior to installation).

The expression “Good fences make good neighbours” might ring true for suburban neighbourhoods. But when your business is in a high density up-market shopping mall, you sometimes require a little more insulation between you and your neighbours if you’re going to keep the peace.

A modern gym is a far cry from the subdued sounds of clinking barbells and belting boxing bags of yesteryear. These days they’re high-intensity audio-visual extravaganzas, matched with high-amplitude exercise routines designed to pump out every excess kilojoule of energy you have.

But there’s also a delicate balance between keeping the mojo strong, and keeping the neighbours happy, especially if you’re located in a crowded mall.

No one understands this better than Les Mills, whose successful network of clubs span the length and breadth of NZ going back 60 years.  And when Les Mills revamped their landmark Takapuna gym on the upper floors of the Westfield Shopping Mall, combating noise and reverberation were top of the shopping list.

Using recent advancements in technology Advance Flooring supplied and installed Neoflex High Impact tiles with a red/black fleck to reflect the colours of the gym and the equipment.

To the uninitiated, this looks and feels like any gym floor, but Neoflex High Impact Tiles offer a number of advantages:

They’re 45mm thick and made from granulated EPDM/recycled rubber, which is endorsed by Environmental Choice

They’re developed especially for use in fitness and free-weight areas, to absorb crashing blows (making the area safer), and mitigate both the sounds and vibrations emanating from the gym.  

The anti-fatigue properties of the flooring leave gym-users fresher and free from injury, and it carries a seven-year warranty against breaking or cracking.

Gym users might feel better, but won’t notice the difference between this and any other surface unless they drop their weights on it. Better still, the ‘neighbourhood’ is safer and quieter as the High Impact Tiles eat up the noise and vibration.

Advance Greenpad blends proven sustainability with enhanced performance

Using Environmentally Sound products to furnish public spaces is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity!

When it comes to school expansions, the days of the perennial asbestos prefab are long gone. Classrooms are now the epitome of ecological sustainability. To be considered responsible, the products they use need to be not only safe for the building occupants, but also have a minimal impact on the environment. And these benefits must be clear and credible.

When Cashmere Avenue School in Wellington fitted out their new classroom block, they were anxious to tick both these boxes without compromising on attractiveness or taste.

It’s no surprise therefore that Cashmere Avenue School chose to carpet the new block with our highly acclaimed “GreenPad” carpet tiles.  With a wide variety of colours to choose from, they opted for a charcoal coloured ‘Essence01’ carpet tile, with vivid colour highlights to provide contrast and define different spaces.

But GreenPad is far more than an eye-catching floor cover. It revolutionized the carpet tile industry by combining provable sustainability with superior performance such as lifetime stain resistance built right into the fibre.

The secret to such high quality and sustainability is the DuPont Sorona fibre, which is produced from plant material such as maize. As a result energy usage in manufacture is cut by one third, and emissions by two thirds.

And GreenPad is certified not only by our own NZ Environmental Choice, but also by the international Declare labeling initiative, which clearly identifies all ingredients and processes.

Without a doubt this school has taught us all a lesson in life, which is that you need not compromise looks for performance and sustainability. Advance Flooring Systems is proud to be a part of their future.

AMI Netball Centre opts for revolutionary new Orbit Entrance Matting Systems

Netball on the North Shore is huge. And the AMI Netball Centre is right at it’s heart.

This all-weather indoor facility caters to over 16,000 registered players from primary school level through to adults, all regularly using the facilities for leagues, tournaments and training, it’s busy almost every day of the year, and there are many days when it gets more traffic through it’s doors than your average shopping mall.

Of utmost importance for the smooth and safe operations of the club is maintaining a clean and dust-free environment. And this starts right at the front door.

The key to keeping the indoor areas clean is effective entrance matting systems, which can cut out up to 86% of all dirt and grime right there at the front door. The management considered our range of heavy duty entrance systems, including the bestselling CoralTread range and the ultra-hard-working Waterhog range, but settled instead for the all-new “Orbit” system which blended some of the latest technologies into a lightweight, low-maintenance entrance matting solution.

Orbit’s sleek contemporary design is based on an articulated series of 50mm wide aluminium strips, which allow the system to be rolled up (for ease of delivery or for routine cleaning). It’s assembled and tested in our factory prior to delivery, so you can be assured of a fast and precise installation.

Your choice of infills depends on your specific requirements and budget. The system is designed to work equally well with ScrapeRib (polypropylene), Zeno Protect Excellence(polyamide) or retread(recycled rubber).

This lightweight, low profile, low maintenance entrance matting system ticks all the boxes for AMI Netball Centre – it’s attractive, efficient, and easy to maintain.

Peregrine winery, in the foothills of The Remarkables, is the venue for tonight’s final Paradigm Shift presentation, and also your last chance to win one of our stylish Youmans Capsules.

We have our third winner at Paradigm Shift in Wellington last night. Pictured is Lincoln Macintyre of Advance Flooring preparing to hand the incredible Youmans Capsule over to Winner Nicolas Zilliox, of Studio 104 in Wellington.

Tonight the Paradigm Shift seminar moves to Christchurch, and Advance will be on hand to give away another Youmans Capsule. If you can’t make Christchurch, be sure to find us for our last seminar and last giveaway in Queenstown on Friday.

The winner of our first Youmans Capsule at Paradigm Shift was drawn by keynote speaker John Klein in Tauranga last night. Congratulations to Nigel McKerras, from Sanderson Group Architects.

There's another Capsule to be won at the Auckland seminar tonight (and more at Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown later this week), so please join us!

“A sneak preview of our company presentation at “Paradigm Shift”, which is taking place in Tauranga this evening. If you’re in the vicinity, please come on down for your chance  wn a Youmans Capsule. If you’re in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Queenstown, then we’ll see you later in the week!

As computers and composites invade our work spaces, the building industry is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. And we’d like to help you catch up on what this means for your business.

Advance Flooring is proud to be a sponsor of the 4th  series of “Paradigm Shift”, where internationally renowned speaker John Klein will share his wealth of experience in Architecture and Design.

To give you a little incentive to come along, we’re giving away five Youmans Capsules – the very pinnacle of the modern business briefcase. It’s ideal for working, presenting, playing or travelling, and will keep all your documents and devices stylishly safe.

“Paradigm shift” is taking place in five locations over the five days of next week. Starting in Tauranga on Monday, the event moves to Auckland, then Wellington, Christchurch, and ends in Queenstown on Friday. So be sure to get along for this mind-altering evening, and don’t forget to drop by the Advance Flooring stand for your chance to win your very own Youmans Capsule.

Creating a signature look for an iconic Kiwi brand.

When the owners of livestock handling solutions company Te Pari were contemplating their new Oamaru Headquarters, they started with a blank palette, except for one aspect due to a longstanding friendship Advance Flooring Systems was already chosen to supply their carpets.

By adopting this unconventional approach, their choice of carpets was to be the key to the overall design of their office interior.

Advance Flooring Systems recommended their popular “Montreal” mottled grey carpet tiles as the base floor covering. This robust carpet tile is stocked in New Zealand as part of their Express Delivery range and has a subtle style which breaks up the expanse of the floor and is pleasant to walk on.

But to really make this floor pop, the expanse of grey was broken up with vivid highlights in Te Pari corporate colours using another Advance staple – Rondo,– a level loop carpet tile.  This carpet tile is from the GreenPad range made from Dupont Sorona fibre offering superior stain resistance and durability. This created bursts of colour throughout the building which acted as design cues with matching highlights in the walls, doors and furniture.

The end result was a vibrant and distinctive work environment that unmistakably represents the Te Pari brand.

To cap off the floor treatments, Te Pari fitted Advance Flooring’s highly absorbent Waterhog Classic Tile entrance carpet system. Designed for locations where moisture and dirt can be a real problem, this product is extremely durable and highly water absorbent. It’s rugged and businesslike appearance fits perfectly with the earthy branding of Te Pari.

Spectacular flooring solutions for opulent offices.

As any marketer will tell you, service businesses are judged to a large extent on the image they portray. It’s why doctors and lawyers maintain opulent offices.

And if you’re the largest publicly listed insurance group in Asia, refreshing your flagship offices in arguably the most opulent of all cities in Asia, you can be pretty sure that every product is chosen to maximize the impact of their investment.

So we were delighted when AIA Insurance Group chose Colourspring for their new Hongkong headquarters. This high quality tufted loop comes in four distinct patterns in four vibrant colours. They’re designed to be intermixed – rearranged, or tipped on edge – to make your floors prestigious and unique.

AIA chose Magma Orange highlights around the edges in a predominantly grey floor, with the occasional breakout of colour providing focus and fluidity in the office. These subtle cues help direct traffic, and designate congregation points.

Colourspring’s vibrant colours can impart almost any mood on your floor from the romantic shades of Polar Purple, the alluring warmth of and Moss Green, and the electrifying shards of Sparkling Blue.

But choosing the colour is only half the fun. It’s how you arrange the tiles that will make your floor pop. Check out this video to see more…

Colourspring Video.

Seeking inspiration in the Architect’s own office

When an architect is asked what his best building is, he usually answers, “The next one.” But since you can’t really use that for inspiration on your own building, then perhaps the next best thing is to look at the buildings they design for themselves.

Warren & Mahoney have taken this principle on board in designing their new Christchurch offices. The building embraces the core values of the new-look Christchurch blending form and function in a building with “a sense of strength, creativity and positive public engagement”.

The 3,400 sqm building at 254 Montreal St includes a 1,000 sqm studio for Warren & Mahoney, and incorporates all the features you’d expect in a post-quake project – structural resilience from a raft of seismic measures, thermal efficiency incorporating intricate solar shading, and of course dynamic devices to minimize maintenance and repair.

And after years of experience working with our products, it’s no surprise really that Warren & Mahoney specified CoralTread entrance matting to help keep the elements outside their building. In what we’d describe as an optimal installation, the anodized aluminium strips with black polyamide strips fill the generously-proportioned glass-encased wind lobby, accentuating the myriad of buildings and road markings beyond the plate-glass entrance doors.

Our studies show that 2-3 steps on CoralTread can remove up to 86% of the dirt which might otherwise be trampled into the building, and visitors to Warren & Mahoney’s office will take several more steps to traverse the wind lobby, ensuring efficiency and a clean and safe environment inside for occupants and visitors.

CoralTread is made by Advance Flooring, and installed globally. It uses an aluminium strip design, made to measure, separated by highly absorbent polyamide infills, and placed on a shock-absorbing vinyl cushion. It is an attractive addition to any entranceway, and ideal for use in high density traffic areas such as commercial offices, schools, airports and hotels.

When commercial carpets need to be robust as well as stylish.

In the not-too-distant past, engineering firms were all about poring over blueprints on a muddy site in a singlet and hob-nailed boots. And even in this millennium, where you’re more likely to find your lead engineer in the boardroom with the client hunched over the latest BIM analysis, the hob-nailed boots are probably still in the cupboard behind him (or her) ready for the next site visit.

In furnishing the new Christchurch headquarters for Harrison & Grierson, Unispace were tasked with providing a floor-covering which took this unusual job requirement into account.

Unispace chose Stuttgart Carpet Tiles by Advance Flooring to cover the 1,800 sqm floorplan. This multi-level loop nylon carpet is classified for “Heavy Commercial” traffic and passes all relevant standards for both smoke and flammability. It also includes “ultra-fresh” anti-microbial properties to ensure the office environment stays pure. It’s backed with PVC and fiberglass, making it incredibly strong and durable.

But most important, it looks great. The 500mm x 500mm tiles come in 12 varieties, and can be laid in five different configurations, giving very different context to your spaces.