German Design Award 2019 for Open Frameworks Design Edition

Parador, the premium brand for outstanding products for flooring, wall and ceiling design, has a special reason to be happy these days: the current Design Edition "Open Frameworks", which was created in collaboration with the internationally renowned architect Hadi Teherani, has been awarded the German Design Award 2019 in the "Special Mention" category.

With the "Open Frameworks Design Edition", Hadi Teherani combines different colours and shapes into a completely new approach to floor design, whose creative boundaries are infinitely extended: the plank elements of the engineered wood and laminate flooring can be combined in a variety of ways and create room for nearly unlimited design options. The collection deploys its full power in a combination of materials, colours and finishes.

Birgit Kunth, Parador's Head of Marketing and Communication, is thrilled about the award. "For the Open Frameworks Design Edition we have successfully collaborated with Hadi Teherani for the second time since 2014. We created a Design Edition that is unique in terms of design and innovative force, and it is groundbreaking. We are proud to have created something truly innovative, and we are of course thrilled that this result now also impressed the jury of the German Design Award."

From classic to avant-garde – the engineered oak flooring planks of the Design Edition in three contemporary colours and four formats create a new variety of design options because they can be combined with each other in any way.

The wealth of variety is extended by the so-called "links", which were specially devised for the engineered wood flooring edition: these design elements in four sizes and six colours ensure a virtually unlimited number of combinations. In particular the colour contrast of the links results in innovative design aspects, which stage the colour of the flooring.

The laminate planks of the Design Edition start somewhere between original and interpretation: classic flooring design materials such as terrazzo, travertin, wood, and stone evolved in a contemporary manner. In this respect, the Design Edition plays with colours and material properties and makes use of the varied design options that laminate flooring provides. Decors thereby emerge that fluctuate between imitation and the genuine.

Parador has opted to cooperate with well-known designers for several years. In addition to Hadi Teherani, who has now created a collection for Parador for the second time, collaborations with prominent personalities from the international design scene, e.g. Alfredo Häberli, Matteo Thun, Karim Rashid, and Zaha Hadid, also created flooring for the premium manufacturer in Coesfeld.

The German Design Award is the international premium prize of the German Design Council. Its aim: to discover, present and honour unique design trends. Every year, therefore, prizes are awarded to high-calibre entries from the fields of product and communication design, all of which are pioneering in their own way in the international design landscape. The German Design Award, initiated in 2012, is one of the most recognised design competitions worldwide and enjoys a high reputation far beyond specialist circles.

Due to the unique nomination procedure, only those products and communication design services are invited to participate that have been proven to stand out through their design quality. The "Special Mention" award is given to works whose design shows particularly successful partial aspects or solutions – an award that honours the commitment of companies and designers.

The jury of the German Design Award 2019 is made up of design experts from business, education and science as well as the design industry. All jury members are acknowledged authorities in their fields.