"namad" : new collection 2017

2016 was the year of the acoustics. Throughout press articles, trade fairs, and in our clients' projects acoustics seemed to be the number one problem : How do you improve acoustics in open spaces? How can workers be efficient in open spaces? How should we respond to workers complaints about their new work conditions? Although these spaces have been designed to create interaction and co-working, it seems that they have come to their limits. Flexibility and agility have become mottos that need to be fully integrated in the process of change management.

In my personal approach, I always try to anticipate and analyze my clients' needs in order to be able to accompany them in their quest of improving their companies' performance as well as their workers' well being. Rethinking a workspace is much more than simply banning walls and using flashy colors everywhere.

Since ten years, I have been introducing flexible materials and their intrinsic properties into service of my clients. Textiles help me in treating questions related to luminosity, visibility, modularity, thermal and acoustic comfort. Large companies as well as private clients come to me for my know-how in textile applications. I try to come up with textile solutions in order to create spaces where people, their lives and their work are respected. I believe that textiles can bring wellness into interior projects if they are used in a knowledgeable manner and not just as decoration.

Felt is a millenary textile that I particularly like to use in my projects (you might have noticed the different articles about felt already on this blog).

This is why in January 2017 I have decided to call my felt collection "namad" (felt in persian). This collection now holds not only my already well known gliding panels but also two new comers :

"namad" : pleating panels in felt that glide smoothly on a track. This product is entirely tailor made and available in a choice of 50 colors.

details front view pleating panel in felt

"namad" : curtains in felt that slide on a curved track.This product is entirely tailor made and available in a choice of 50 colors.

"namad" : sliding panels in felt that glide smoothly on a track. This product is entirely tailor made and available in a choice of 50 colors.

I have always been convinced of the technical features of felt. In order to reinforce my convictions with facts and figures I have put my products into acoustic tests.
Before going through the results of the tests, here is a reminder of the mechanisms of air and sound absorption by felt.

Felt reduces the acoustic energy that hits it effectively in three ways :

loss through friction
loss through vibration of the structure
internal damping (shock absorption)

Alpha is the factor for sound absorption. The more porous the material, the more absorbing it is in high frequencies. The thicker the material, the more absorbing it is in low frequencies which are the most difficult to capture.

Being porous and thick at the same time, felt is a very good sound absorber in both low and high frequencies. This is confirmed by the tests we have conducted.

The goal of the tests was to determine the absorption factor of my products in felt and their equivalent sound absorption area A. The measurements were carried out according to the Standard NF EN ISO 354 (2004).

Super imposed test results for the equivalent sound absorption area A

The tests were conducted in October 2016 using our products exactly the same way they would be used on a project : hung in space and not against walls. All surfaces of the products were thus exposed to sound whereas in other acoustic tests conducted for more traditional panels and curtains, the elements are always installed within 15cm of a wall that also helps absorb a good fraction of sound. In other words our tests need to be compared with tests conducted in a similar situation.
Our results are actually quite high given the fact that the products are suspended in space and not helped out by complimentary elements such as walls.

Sound absorption or acoustic correction is seeked in the following cases :

to limite sound vibrations
to reduce the level of sound waves
to enhance acoustic comfort

Here are some of the applications for our felt products :

Space dividers
Creating modular spaces
Creating corridors and passage ways
Hiding away unaesthetic elements such as doors, copy machines, shelves...
Transition between two spaces
Black outs for window treatments
Staging

50 colors,
2 thicknesses in felt : 2mm & 3mm,
infinite possibilities in laser cut designs,
fire retardant treatment upon demand,
entirely tailor made...

Liens

January, 09 2017

Flexible materials

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