Sustainable material choices in interior design
Between Earth Day on April 22 and World Ocean Day on June 9, NewArmstrong will dive in depth with 5 themes about how we can make a difference in sustainability in our field. This is part of the first theme: selection of materials in which sustainable material choices are made in the interior design .
Reuse like ‘reclaimed wood’
What you do not consume has no negative effect on the environment. Wood is a material that can be used in a circular manner: during demolition it can be separated and re-sanded or finely sawn so that it can be used again. Reclaimed wood’: nowadays you often read it as a circular solution. And this is how it looks in practice: no waste stream, but storage for reprocessing, on the construction site. These wooden plates can be easily reassembled by carefully dismantling and cleaning them.
Another example in one of our construction projects is this recycled wooden floor. The floor parts from another project have been dismantled, sanded and varnished again to be placed in a cast floor as an accent.
But also existing wooden floors, such as this 30-year-old wooden floor in a Perry Sport store. With a new sanding and oiling, this wooden floor is suitable again for many years of intensive use.
Wood can also be returned to the production process. The wooden plates from Foresso are a good example of this: a terrazzo by processing wood in plate material. The reuse and visibility of the recycled material results in a beautiful drawing.
Wood alternatives
There are also alternatives to wood that have a lower environmental impact. The best-known example is bamboo. Bamboo is a type of grass and not a tree. Bamboo wood is therefore not wood, but lignified grass. From the stems become planks and beams that are built from the bamboo sawn into strips. Bamboo wood is used in the same applications as wood and, just like wood, it can shrink and swell, has strength and has a certain resistance to micro-organisms. Bamboo grows quickly, can reach a height of 30 meters and especially the thicker stems provide a beautiful, strong and durable product. The shelves in the rack in the photo above are made of bamboo: a much lower environmental impact than wood and just as sturdy.
Cork is no longer the material that is only suitable for the bulletin board in the office. Cork is a versatile and beautiful material that is available in many colors and finishes. On the floor, wall (such as this example from Forbo ), as insulation, finishing of sheet material, worktop. Cork is so durable because it is like the bark of the cork tree that can be peeled off. That bark grows back in a period of 9 years. removing this bark will not harm the tree. It is therefore a product that replenishes itself. Cork is also very suitable for grinding again to reuse as a raw material. With a very limited ecological footprint and extremely suitable for circular construction, it is therefore not surprising that cork is a truly sustainable choice of material.
‘clean paint’

Paint is often not associated with sustainability. Our neighbors on Leidsevaartweg 1: RAWpaints and BOLDpaints are a positive exception to this.
They make paint powders. They make these with natural pigments, without titanium oxide and without water in production and transport. This makes paint much less harmful to the environment. And by not transporting the water, but only adding it at the place of processing, the transport is much less harmful to the environment.
Insulation from reuse
The indigo color of Denim is a very recognizable color. And with that it is also clearly visible which product has been #circularly applied in #Metisse insulation material. Metisse has 85% cotton as recycled raw material. Is is extremely suitable for roof, wall or floor insulation, but also as acoustic insulation, as we have used it in our own office. It retains its shape, is available in sheets and rolls and is easier to process than rock wool or glass wool. but because it is much less harmful than these products, it fits well in sustainable material choices.
^Justus Slaakweg