Don’t believe us, take the Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS) as an example of leading environmental building and rubber flooring.

The school recently completed a new six story education complex. The amazing design of the 129,000 sq.-ft. facility was the design efforts of architecture firm Perkins Eastman who as part of the design build wanted sustainability as a top priority.

The school wanted a building that was not only as a source of energy efficiency but also an environmental education for the students. To achieve this the architects incorporated geothermal technology for heating and cooling across the entire campus, and placed a model of the underground system in the entrance of the school.

As well as a whole variety of other facilities such as green roof top gardens they opted for other eco-friendly materials include daylighting, natural ventilation, and naturally-occurring materials such as bamboo and rubber flooring.

Both bamboo and rubber flooring are great sources of natural flooring. While bamboo can be quite costly, a cheaper alternative for rooms such as bathrooms and bedrooms, or for workplace environments such as offices, factories, gyms or warehouses is rubber flooring. With the increase in demand the colour options available have also increased. It’s no longer just a bland grey option that’s available to you but sexy colours and studded varieties.

For full Shanghai story read
http://www.contractmagazine.com/contract/content_display/design/news/e3i662cd5cc93e73343d25c2af966ed79eb

Large rugs
When you get out of bed and want something soft and warm to step onto, then carpets are the best thing ever. However, thick pile carpet can be really costly and either requires the employment of a carpet fitter or very strong knees and elbows to lay it yourself. An excellent alternative is large rugs. The beauty of a nice rug is that it can be laid anywhere without any fuss. So if you’re bedroom carpet has seen better days then invest in a plush, thick rug. Next time it’s cold outside, you’ll know that it’s warm in your room… or living room.

Wooden elegance
If you’re looking for the natural elegance, you can’t beat a bit of wood. As a modern day alternative, how about some bamboo flooring though? It has a similar look and feel but the fact that it’s bamboo provides that extra touch of contemporary. Alternatively, a cheaper option that achieves a similar look is laminate flooring. It’s extremely durable and if you happen to spill anything on it, a quick wipe will get it clean.

Sturdy slate rubber flooring
For your bathroom, there’s something quite regal about stone slate tiling. It provides the feeling associated with posh hotels. However, these really are very expensive. A modern alternative is a looky likey rubber flooring alternative. For example, the flooring that is provided by ukflooringonline.com . At first glances you’d be hard pushed to work out whether this was real slate or not. While you won’t have the cold feeling when you put your feet on slate effect rubber flooring, for all intents and purposes it will look like the real deal. Fortunately for us, vinyl flooring has grown in availability and now there’s a mind boggling choice of stone effects to choose from. Best of all It is also affordable and has the edge over genuine granite in
that it is highly insulative.

Architectural company, Gensler, recently produced the EcoCabin (perfect for cub scouts). A cabin-in-a-box solution using… wait for it…shipping containers. Yup, the shipping containers have been turned into small buildings to populate the LA boy scouts movement. Ensuring that the boisterous lads didn’t slip over or ruin the flooring, the automatic solution for their flooring needs was rubber flooring. A long lasting, attractive flooring option, the company realised that it would prove to be low maintenance and long lasting.

And it’s not just the Americans that appreciate good vinyl flooring. Townends estate agent down in Hounslow have recently won a contract to refurbish a new development of high end apartments. According to website My Introducer while the agents opted for neutral carpeting for the lounge and bedrooms, the immediate option for kitchens and bathrooms was vinyl flooring.

Gyms have also stepped up their game by introducing rubber flooring to their establishments. The main reason for the increased uptake of vinyl flooring is down to cost and ease of use. Not only is rubber flooring extremely cost effective but it’s also durable and easy to keep clean making it the ideal flooring option for anywhere that has constant foot traffic.

Scale Doormat

Oh dear Christmas is over and all those chocs and mince pies have gone. That extra helping of Christmas pudding has really taken its toll on your waistline. Well the New Year is here and the inevitable “I must loose weight” resolution is upon us.

The Doormat scale is a good way to force you to check your weight on a daily basis, since you’ll have to weigh yourself every time you enter or leave the house.  The Doormat Scale will become your best ally when it comes to losing weight.

Also, you’ll finally know how much your guests weigh: including your friends, your mum, your dog, your sexy next-door neighbour, your chubby friend, your skinny friend, Jehovah’s witnesses, etc. The Doormat Scale is sure to become a daily source of guaranteed fun. It’ll give you a laugh and provide the perfect excuse to start a fun conversation.

The Doormat Scale was designed exclusively for Curiosite by Emilio Alarcón, a Spanish designer with wide-ranging experience. Emilio himself explains: “I realized that weight had become a social taboo. No one talks about how much we weigh or don’t weigh, it’s almost like talking about money, no one talks about how much money the make. I’d also been thinking that people were becoming a bit too boring lately. We seem to find it hard to start conversations, even with people who come knocking on our doors. The Doormat Scale is my small own contribution to trying to solve these two day-to-day problems for the First World.

Take a look at these funny doormats that we have spotted around the web.

Wow! Nice Underwear

A great conversation starter if you are single but maybe one that you might like to remove from the front door if you are married and the mother-in-law is on her way over.

Anyhoo

If you live in a home that is constantly being targeted by sales people this may be the one for you.

go away!

If you really dont think that the last doormat gets the message across clearly enough then this one couldnt be more to the point.

We’re so excited

One for the animal lovers! If you love animals then this doormat is a must. There are a lot of doormats on the market currently featuring cats and dogs.

Bob’s Man Cave

The personalised man cave doormat is great for any garden shed or garage door which many men regard as “their space”.

The cat, Day 751

This doormat is very amusing and makes for a good read however it really does depend on how long you want people to be stood on your doormat before they enter the house.

Memo to the cat

Another one for the cat lovers which is sure to bring a smile to anyone who arrives at your door, cat lover or not.

I Golf

This amusing doormat is for any golf lover in your life.

Keys, Wallet, Mobile Phone

For those of us that are forgetful this doormat saves you having to stick a note to the door every morning or from arriving at your destination without any money.

Finish line doormat

When the rat race is over at the end of the day, what better way to be welcomed home than a finishing line.

article provided by www.doormatsdelivered.com

The tiles have the look of slate yet they aren’t cold or rough to the touch.

The slate rubber tiles are ideal for the use on any bathroom floor large or small and are perfect for use as floor tiles in the kitchen. Being made from rubber means that they are easily wiped clean and a lot more versatile and hygenic than carpet.

The slate effect rubber tiles offer a realistic natural looking finish with the cost-effectiveness and durability that rubber provides.

For more information visit www.ukflooringonline.com

With the inevitable onslaught of winter determined to deep freeze our feet, there’s an obvious solution to warming your home without blasting on the central heating – and one that will save you more on your utility bill over time too.

Our tip top is to find a good quality, large area rug to cover floors but it’s possible to manage to make a style statement without finding a nightmare on your bank statement.

A great find is this big and fluffy shaggy pile rug that looks luxe and comes in an array of colours. Conveniently constructed from a modern polyester blend, it’s considerably more hygienic that the woollen versions and you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s much lower maintenance too.

So forget cosying up on a carpet, keep your lush hardwood or ceramic floors and just add a luxuriously rich rug so that you can enjoy the cool surfaces again when summer finally comes back around.

According to auctioneer Stephen Drake estimating the worth or rugs is the hardest, “a complete minefield” in his opinion. He goes on to explain that despite being able to professionally distinguish its attributes (”It’s probably about a hundred years old. It’s got a pink-crimson ground; it’s got a central medallion; and it’s got a foliate triple border.”), it’s still mind bogglingly difficult to pinpoint a cost.

Take for example, a large area rug that came from one of Cambridge’s collegiate halls; he’d estimated it might sell for between £200-400. Surprisingly, he found buyers bidding higher and higher until it eventually sold for £9,500.

“As the price was going up and up and up, people who were standing on the rug were backing away … You get these things that you just can’t imagine what the price is.”

Clearly baffled by the perculiarities of his trade, Drake sighs. When he explains that the key to being a good auctioneer is realising that time is money and that he ought to be selling around 120 lots an hour in five hour stints, it becomes a very tiring occupation due to the sheer concentration it requires to be continuously looking for bids from potentially 100 buyers at any given time in the room.

Credit where it’s due, we’re not sure it sounds like the easy occupation we once thought it was.

Fortunately it’s far easier to judge the cost of a new rug because all the hard work’s done for you by the retailer and there’s none of the disappointment of someone else grabbing your dream accessory before your eyes.

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Cutting edge design? Check. Vibrant colour schemes? Check. Aesthetically and ethically pleasing products? Check.

Jonathan Adler’s mantra is to treat your feet, and we couldn’t agree more. As do we agree with his sentiments that minimalism is a bummer (true say), and that tassels are the earrings of the home (aw!).

Well, they are a lovely decorative touch, but after several battles with a vaccuum cleaner trying to eat tassels on rugs in our home – personally, we’ll take a pass on that one, but only for practical reasons you understand!

So, Jonathan Adler (swoon) makes lovely treats for your feet, alternatively known as rugs. His rugs are made from the finest materials (couture handmade tufted premium New Zealand wool and hand-loomed Peruvian llamas wool too) with a pretty fine price tag to match unfortunately.

We knew that there had to be a catch somewhere. Perhaps we should introduce Mr Adler to the likes of his admirers’ budgets in the vague hope that he might slash his prices.

Never mind, we’ll just keep looking at pretty pictures of his rugs whilst rubbing our toes in to a cosy and considerably cheaper pile – well, it might be just as feel-good. Heaven knows, our bank balance will feel a lot better.

In the meantime, we’ll leave you with his final thought: “We believe you should throw out your Blackberry and go pick some actual blackberries.”

Did we tell you he’s wonderful?

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Sounds like due credit when you learn that the rug is the product of having worked for at least an hour a day over the past year to produce it. This labour of love isn’t stand-alone however, as rug hooker Nancy Crisman explains she has completed over 50 hooked rugs in the last 25 years.

Having learnt to hook rugs as a child and growing up in an old three-storey stone house where floors were cold, Crisman’s rug making was as functional an activity as it was an enjoyable hobby she has kept up into adulthood.

The rugs she tends to make are largely reproductions of many that her great-aunt made. She does this to retain the pieces as family heirlooms as the materials and backing that were used in the originals aren’t as durable as those used today and have deteriorated over the years.

A lovely way to ensure family traditions are passed on, but if you haven’t got the skills of time to create your own but still want to warm up those floors, this large Chinese rug made of modern fibres for increased hygiene would do just the job for toasting your tootsies on.

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