The following is an interview I conducted on tour with Tile of Spain‘s Reign in Spain design competition. This FCNews blog post is a first-hand look at what is important to today’s designers and architects.
Architect Scott Knudson, Wiencek & Associates, Architects + Planners, went to Spain with the hopes of finding new products and applications for tile in his projects.
“I wanted to experience the culture of modern and historic architectural of Spain and, more specifically, how tile is threaded through that.” Currently, the firm is installing a raised floor in a library and Scott said Tau’s model of raised ceramic flooring could have been a solution for that project.
He said Wiencek & Associate’s work focuses on socially and sustainably responsible and while a lot of its clients are non-profit, using tile could help change the perceived notion of some of the projects where vinyl or a cheaper product would be used. “We want to put tile at the leading edge of affordable housing. Just because its affordable housing, doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t have a strong, modern statement. We work a lot with perceived value and the right tile could achieve that. Even the expensive tile we saw, I could use in moderation.
“We’ve been moving toward more hard surfaces in our projects for human health reasons and many of the communities we [all] live and work in have asthma and other health problems without the means to pay for it. We are focused on finding good, healthy products. Our product selection is driven by energy use and health, and how those feed into concerns of our clients.
-Emily