The once-obvious line between commercial and residential design is quickly blending, and long gone are the days of industrial-looking fronts. Especially notable in healthcare and hospitals, the design of such institutions has taken a hint from hospitality and shifted from clinical to homey.
Along with more natural light and color on the walls, wood-look flooring has become the go-to option for such environments, and in restaurants and office building lobbies. Commercial luxury vinyl tile (LVT) provides a solution both inexpensive and attractive for any front-of-house space.
Biophilic Design: a not-so-alien hypothesis
The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and nature, and is defined in Edward O. Wilson’s book, Biophilia (1984), as “the urge to affiliate with other forms of life.” Not like the alien kind, but the natural environment. Meaning, humans feel and perform better when exposed to even replicas of the outdoors.
Since biophilia’s inception, it has expanded to include even the most generic objects found in nature—including the wood-looks often mimicked in LVT.
Evidence-based design on the subject of healthcare environments shows that hospitals are stressful by association, and installing wood-look textures and styles gives the relaxing feeling of home. All visitors and staff can then take in a calm, warm and comforting aura.
Borrowing from the king of residential
Especially in residential applications and even in your living room, hardwood flooring has a firm spot in interior design. However, its reign as dictator of residential wood flooring has quickly dwindled due to the coup de LVT.
LVT offers all of the great qualities of hardwood flooring that you have come to love—beautiful wood grain texture and a variety of sizes, colors and shades—but brings with it commercial-like durability. Hardwood’s residential looks, combined with the durability of commercial-grade, make LVT the ideal option for a commercial environment begging for a residential-style design.
Altro Lavencia Click LVT
Altro Lavencia Click performs well and installs without adhesive using a click mechanism, and retains realistic wood-looks the design requires while saving both time and money. At 5mm thick with a 22 mil wear layer, our LVT can take medium to high levels of foot traffic.
As a bonus, its increased sound resistance (54 IIC) makes its use more prominent multi-level or otherwise sound-deafened necessary spaces.
Our Altro Lavencia Click LVT can provide your commercial space saved time, reduced costs and high grade durability all with a wide range of colors in different natural and wood-look designs.
