All the flooring for the extensive ‘green’ refurbishment of the Total South Africa head office building was supplied and installed by Kevin Bates Albert Carpets (KBAC) Rosebank.
As part of Total SA’s quest for a Level 4 Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa for the refurbished building, nearly 7,500 m2 of sustainable Interface flooring was specified for the project by Paragon Interiors.
Imported from Europe and distributed in South Africa by KBAC, Interface is an environmental pioneer in modular flooring, and has reached major sustainability production milestones since it embarked on ‘Mission Zero’ in 1996, an initiative to become the world’s first sustainable, restorative carpet manufacturer by the year 2020.
Lesley Fidrmuc, Interface consultant for KBAC, says 6,950 m2 of the Interface Monochrome carpet tile range, and 500 m2 of Interface’s Urban Retreat carpet tiles, were specified by Paragon Interiors, and installed by KBAC in the Total SA building in Biermann Avenue.
“Interface Monochrome range comprises 500 mm x 500 mm highly textured loop-pile tiles, made from 100% recycled fibre. Available in 48 colours, designers can create seamless wall-to-wall flooring or use different-coloured tiles to create zones or special patterns.
Using Monochrome, designers can differentiate spaces and working areas without relying on partition walls,” Fidrmuc explained. “The wide array of colours also simplifies matching the flooring to other interior products and furnishings.”
Interface’s Urban Retreat is part of the company’s ongoing Biophilic ranges, brainchild of internationally-renowned pioneer of flooring bio-mimicry, David Oakey. He found inspiration in the visual, tactile features of forest floors, grassy fields and pebbled garden paths in creating the Urban Retreat range employed by Paragon Interiors to bring nature indoors for the 550 staff members based at the Total SA head office.
“Urban Retreat is a dynamic collection of 11 carpet tile products, also 500 mm x 500 mm in size, sorted into pattern studies that range from refined textures to broad organic forms.
With its natural, neutral colour palette, Urban Retreat mimics forest floors, or moss or lichen-covered stone – all accomplished with an exceptionally high recycled content.
For the Total head office, KBAC supplied three Urban Retreat tiles to form Paragon Interiors’ overall pattern. One was a ‘transition tile’, UR 101, with each half of the tile a different colour, along with UR 102 and UR 103, both plain-coloured carpet tiles.
“Urban Retreat is a tufted, patterned loop carpet tile, produced from 100% recycled yarn with a high proportion of recycled content in its backing. The ranges installed in the Total offices are produced on a special computer-driven Interface tapestry machine, which produces a very heavily textured finish with high and low loops.
“The Interface flooring supplied for the refurbishment project, replaced Interface carpet tiles installed in the Total head offices by KBAC about a decade ago,” Fidrmuc added.
Lisa Young, account manager at Paragon Interiors, who specified the flooring for Total House, says with the Level 4 Green Star GBCSA rating in mind, Paragon Interiors had no hesitation in selecting Interface flooring because of the company’s prioritised focus on sustainability.
“However, the focus on sustainability was a constant thread throughout the installation and not only relative to the Green Star requirement. The quest for sustainability is also pertinent to Total’s brand drive regarding environmental preservation,” Young said.
“Interface offers a 100% recycled yarn and KBAC used a ‘green’ method of installation to all the floor plates, applying the tiles with an adhesive with zero Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) content.
“Paragon Interiors specified Interface Urban Retreat for the client meeting suites, as well as Total House’s executive wing.
We used a combination of the Interface Monochrome colours that related to Total’s brand to yield an uplifting and playful design to the collaboration destinations and communal hubs; and a grey palette pattern mix to the balance of the floor plates,” she added.
KBAC senior contracts manager, Werner Gouws, who was in charge of the installation, said the adhesive used for the Interface flooring had a zero total VOC content. “Installation posed no major challenges. Thanks to excellent logistical control by the main contractor, JC van der Linde & Venter Projects, the KBAC team simply had to focus on achieving top quality installation,” Gouws recalled.
More information from Neil Duncan, Tel:+27(0)116084270 or Michelle Richards, Tel:+27(0)214644320/www.kbacflooring.co.za
Caption: Three views of the sustainable flooring supplied by KBAC Flooring for the new Total House, which has applied for a GBCSA Level 4 Green Star rating.
