Chicago — NeoCon World’s Trade Fair, the country’s largest conference and exhibition of contract furnishings for the design and management of the built environment, returned to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart for its 40th annual year, June 9-11, 2008. This year, the event showcased thousands of new products from hundreds of the world’s top manufacturers in commercial, residential, healthcare, hospitality, institutional and government design products.

Product offerings — many of which were unveiled for the first time — spanned a wide range of categories, including: architectural products, artwork and accessories, building products and services, fabric, floor coverings, furnishings, furniture, kitchen and bath, lighting, outdoor furniture, stone and tile, sustainable design products, technology, textiles and wall coverings. Listed below are some highlights from ED+C’s visit to the Merchandise Mart.

Reinvented Carpet Sampling System

Dalton, Ga. — Tandus, a manufacturer of commercial floorcoverings, has introduced Green Samples by Tandus; a virtual sample folder that minimizes the need for physical carpet samples. The patented sampling book contains tear-off pads for each colorway, and each sample folder pad has 25 color-accurate digital images replicating physical carpet samples. The specifier uses the folder in the same way that a designer would use a sample book in the firm’s resource library, but is now encouraged to tear the color swatch out of the folder — up to 25 uses per color — rather than having to replace a missing swatch after one use.

Each sample sheet contains a virtual image on one side, and specifications and positive environmental impacts on the other. Such environmental benefits include:

• The simulated carpet is color accurate and printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, and are 100 percent recyclable
• Using paper samples reduces the amount of petroleum-based resources used to manufacture nylon, primary and secondary backings
• Virtual image samples use 95 percent less energy to manufacture than carpet

For more information, visit www.tandus.com.

“No-Adhesive” Carpet Backing System

ED+C Group Publisher Diana Brown and Catherine Minervini (left) from Bentley Prince Street play tug’o’war with a carpet sample to demonstrate the Contact Release products’s tenacity. Photo by J.H. Mayton III.

City of Industry, Calif. — Commercial carpet manufacturer Bentley Prince Street’s Contact Release is a new backing system that uses Free Lay technology to install carpet without adhesives or tackstrip. Providing both technical and environmental advantages, the Contact Release system eliminates measurable harmful VOCs emitted during the traditional installation process, which is now almost entirely odor free, the company reports. 

Using Contact Release’s patented Free Lay technology, a thin acrylic polymer is applied to the attached polyurethane carpet backing, which bonds the carpet to virtually any clean, smooth and dry surface without using special installation or removal equipment. The longer the carpet stays in place, the stronger the bond becomes.  While the carpet will not move laterally, it can easily be lifted off the floor. Contact Release is now available on all Bentley Prince Street broadloom products. For more information, visit www.bentleyprincestreet.com.

New Recycled-Content Carpet Tile

Chicago — The Mohawk Group, now comprised of four commercial brands (from six) — including Karastan Contract, Lees Carpets, Bigelow Commercial and Durkan hospitality — provides its customers with a “single source, total solution” for flooring needs. The company’s Merchandise Mart showroom is designed according to the LEED-CI standards, and is designed to achieve Gold certification.

At the NeoCon expo, The Mohawk Group unveiled Remade in the USA — the first carpet tile to feature 98 percent post-consumer recycled content. According to the company, Remade in the USA is manufactured using post-consumer materials (95 percent) from the company’s own Greenworks Center. Still in development for commercial use and not yet available for sale, Remade in the USA is manufactured in The Mohawk Group’s ISO-14001 Glasgow, Va., facility. For more information, visit www.MohawkGreenWorks.com.

Healthcare Company Captures ‘Best of Healthcare Furniture’ Category for Third Straight Year

Chicago — Sonata, from Nurture by Steelcase, won the Gold Award in the Healthcare Furniture category in the Best of NeoCon 2008 competition, which recognizes state-of-the-art product design, technological innovation and environmental sustainability. This is the third straight year that Nurture by Steelcase, a company dedicated to improving healthcare environments, has taken the Gold Award for Healthcare Furniture at NeoCon. For more information, visit www.nurturebysteelcase.com.

Greenguard-Certified Seating Promotes Active Sitting in the Workplace

Spring Lake, Mich. — Showcased at NeoCon, ergonomically optimized, the Sideways chair from HÅG by izzy is GREENGUARD and ISO 14025 certified, with a polished four-star base made from 100 percent recycled aluminum, the company reports. The stackable skid-base model is made of recycled polypropylene as well as brushed stainless steel that is more than 50 percent recycled; in total, the chair is 98 percent recyclable. For more information, visit www.izzydesign.com.

Trends of Tomorrow on Display in Design Lab

Dalton, Ga. — Shaw Contract Group designers identify seven emerging trends and experiment with unexpected materials in Design Lab, the result of a yearlong exploration of the shape, pattern and eco-effectiveness of things to come. The design trends of tomorrow and how they may impact carpet is the concept of Design Lab, which debuted in the Shaw Contract Group showroom at NeoCon World’s Trade Fair. The exhibit presented trends, product design processes and prototypes made with non-traditional materials and manufactured in distinct methods that may inspire future carpet collections. Cashmere, metallic studs and translucent industrial fibers were just some of several unique materials used to create Design Lab.

Also debuting at NeoCon World’s Trade Fair 2008 was Graphic Nature, a broadloom and tile carpet collection from Shaw Contract Group addressing the healthcare market, which is Cradle to Cradle certified and earned a Best of NeoCon Silver Award in the Healthcare Textiles category. In the showroom, Shaw was also highlighting its Essay of Clues, a Cradle to Cradle-certified collection designed in collaboration with architect William McDonough. For more information, visit www.shawcontractgroup.com.

Showroom Demonstrates Adaptability, Sustainability

Holland, Mich. — For the third time in five years, Haworth’s Chicago showroom has been awarded NeoCon’s Best Large Showroom by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). Demonstrating the extreme possibilities of adaptability and sustainability through an integrated approach to workspaces, the 23,000-square-foot showroom, designed by Haworth’s internal design team and Perkins + Will | Eva Maddox Branded Environments, has a new look each year without any changes to the architectural platform. Different designs are achieved with Haworth moveable walls, raised access floors, modular systems products and interior architecture collections.

Reinforcing global design and international capabilities, the Very seating family debuted at NeoCon 2008. The Haworth showroom also included a global seating gallery featuring the s_con family of seating, DSC guest chair, Penelope guest chair, b_sit guest chair, Dialog guest chair, K700 stool, and Plia folding chair, as well as the company’s Castelli collection. For more information, visit www.haworth.com.

Carpet Manufacturer Recognized for Style, Design

Kennesaw, Ga.— Lees Carpets took home a gold level Best of NeoCon award, marking a significant milestone in the company’s successful showing at NeoCon 2008. A division of The Mohawk Group, Lees was honored in the modular category for Places and Spaces, its first-ever printed and tufted carpet collection and its fourth creative collaboration with HOK. Bridging aesthetic appeal and application, Places and Spaces captures America’s urban enigma while celebrating the spirit of four celebrated U.S. cities, the company reports. The collection’s tufted products feature Lees’ Duracolor stain-resistant dye technology integrated into the carpet fiber provides permanent stain and fade resistance. Antron Legacy EPP nylon provides resistance to soiling, matting and crushing. Tufted patterns are backed with Lees’ Encycle PVC-free modular backing system. For more information, visit www.leescarpets.com.

Company to Offset Carbon Impact of Showroom Visitors’ Travel

Atlanta — INVISTA, the manufacturer of ANTRON carpet fiber, has offset the carbon impact associated with travel to NeoCon 2008 for each visitor to the ANTRON carpet fiber showroom in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart.  For the second consecutive year, INVISTA will donate emission reduction credits to Leonardo Academy’s Cleaner and Greener Program. 

Leonardo Academy, through its Cleaner and Greener Program, provides third-party certification to organizations for sustainable actions, including offsetting emissions caused by travel to and from events. Leonardo Academy calculates the round-trip air and ground travel requirements of the average attendee and converts this to CO2 usage, using internationally recognized conversion standards. The estimate for 2008 is .67 metric tons per visitor. For more information, visit www.antron.net and www.INVISTA.com.

For more information, including a complete listing of exhibitors and Best of NeoCon 2008 Award winner, visit www.neocon.com.