The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and Interiors & Sources magazine recently partnered to award the products that best demonstrate a successful marriage of innovation and sustainability at the 2010 Bloom Awards.
The contest was divided into five categories: flooring, systems furniture, occasional furniture, innovative materials and textiles. The winners in each category are:
- Flooring: Tandus' Powerbond ethos Cushion from the Landscape Patterns collection. Made of 100 percent recyclable, close-loop Antron face fiber.
- Systems Furniture: Gunlocke's Silea Desk System, a contemporary office system designed to utilize the Design for the Environment (DfE) program, ensuring the products' reusability.
- Occasional Furniture: Southern Aluminum's XCube, a folding table made from lightweight, durable aluminum materials that never lose their original strength through repeated recycling.
- Innovative Materials: IceStone's Refined Line, a line of green, durable surfaces made from 100 percent recycled glass in a non-toxic cement base. Honorable mentions: ECO surface materials by Cosentino and The Smart Ceiling Tile by Ceilume.
- Textiles: Tabrasa by Ideapaint, an environmentally friendly dry-erase substitute that can turn virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface.
Winners were selected based on their effectiveness and innovation in sustainable commercial interior design. They were judged on the following criteria:
- The extent to which the product is environmentally innovative and aesthetically pleasing
- How the product promotes sustainability, including, but not limited to, energy savings, recycled content, recyclability, life cycle assessments, and end-of-life management
- Materials selection within the manufacturing process (such as substitution of hazardous and toxic chemicals with those that are less harmful)
- Resource efficiency within the manufacturing process (particularly water and energy use)
- Recycling and waste management within the manufacturing process
The Bloom Award winners will be featured in the May 2010 issue of Interiors & Sources, as well as mentioned in the May/June issue of ASID ICON magazine. The winners will also be recognized at ASID's annual conference, ASID at NeoCon, held during NeoCon World's Trade Fair in Chicago, June 14-16.
The judges included Kirsten Childs, ASID, LEED AP; Kirsten Ritchie, PE, LEED AP, principal and director of sustainable design for Gensler; and Rachelle Schoessler Lynn, ASID, CID, LEED AP BD+C, partner at Studio 2030 Inc.
