3 Products Earn Editors’ Choice Award for Product Innovations
The coronavirus pandemic may have shut down trade shows like NeoCon this year, but it didn’t prevent BUILDINGS from keeping its annual Product Innovations awards open.
As always, the awards program showcases the most innovative interiors products each year, but this time, the BUILDINGS editorial team selected finalists virtually rather than in person. The finalists were ranked based upon factors including dependable performance, durable construction, ease of maintenance and what sets them apart from other products.
The panel of editors awarded three Editors’ Choice, 10 Grand Prize and 20 Merit Award designations across five categories:
- Acoustics
- Flooring
- Furniture/Seating
- Lighting
- Materials/Technology
Our Top Three Picks: Editors’ Choice
This year’s Editors’ Choice winners—our highest designation for Product Innovations—were chosen from the Flooring, Lighting, and Materials/Technology categories. These products impressed our editors with their inventive use of materials and resources, biophilic and sustainable designs, and attention to human health and wellness impacts.
1. Smart City Carpet Collection | Mohawk Group
Listen to this special BUILDINGS Express Listen Podcast to learn more:
The Smart City carpet plank collection’s development and design were informed by the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge (GC3) and the AIA 2030 Commitment initiatives that call for all new buildings, developments, and major renovations to be carbon neutral by 2030. The specification of net positive carbon Living Products like this one help support this mission.
In an era when designing for distance in commercial environments is more important than ever, this collection can be used as a complete system to delineate different spaces and help with wayfinding and egress routing.
The Red List-free collection features Mohawk Group’s award-winning Heathered Hues yarn system, which provides a variegated wool-like appearance. The warm, biophilic aesthetic is appealing to all commercial environments—especially those set in more industrialized, urban areas where nature is less evident.
The carpet plank collection reinterprets the transit maps of major cities and urban areas into soft surfaces for commercial interiors across two coordinating 12- by 36-inch styles.
2. SYLVANIA Natural Series | LEDVANCE
Listento this special BUILDINGS Express Listen Podcast to learn more:Facility managers and electrical contractors can easily deliver the benefits of natural light with the SYLVANIA Natural Series of LED lighting products with innovative TruWave Technology from LEDVANCE LLC. This unique technology combines unique chip, phosphor and packaging technology to offer the best alternative to natural light by mimicking the natural light spectrum, all while saving energy.
As a result, this first-to-market LED portfolio enhances color contrasts without saturation and delivers less intense blue light to reduce eye strain, improve readability, and support an improved sleep-wake cycle. The LED products also deliver superior flicker performance, lower glare, and excellent dimmability when applicable which results in better visual comfort.
Additionally, the voluntary international WELL Building Standard prescribes evidence-based best practices for the application of high quality- and circadian-supportive lighting solely focused on the health and wellness of building occupants. This product collection provides value beyond what simply switching to LEDs can provide in meeting WELL Building requirements.
3. Transira Window Solutions | Winco Window Company
Listento this special BUILDINGS Express Listen Podcast to learn more:A new breakthrough in window systems, Transira Prime Window Solutions resolves several common problems faced by hospitals and clinics in the effort to control viruses—a top priority for architects and facility managers today.
This pioneering product encases a high-performance shade within an insulated window, thereby eliminating the possibility of allergens and airborne pathogens clinging to the shade’s fabric.
The window system can be tied into the overall building management technology such as the kind provided by Somfy, a world leader in the automatic control of openings and closures in homes and buildings. This offers healthcare workers and patients the ability to control the light entering the room at the touch of the button.
The window solutions are made with a high-performance vertical shade within an insulated window and can be locally controlled and simultaneously connected with the overall building management system. The design requires minimal vendors for installation, makes maintenance a breeze, and reduces energy bills with the combined efforts of the insulated window, glass coatings and interior shades.
What makes this window shade unique is that it addresses multiple concerns in one platform. Easy installation, low maintenance, no specialized cleaning of draperies, one button local and BMS integrated operation, lower energy bills and operating costs, improved security, easy sanitization and an aesthetically pleasing window system design make this product an ideal choice for education, health care, commercial, retail, restaurant, government, hospitality and residential buildings.
Congratulations to all the winners! Check out our entire list.
