Undreamed of artistic freedom thanks to polyurethane casting resin

Citation

(2003), "Undreamed of artistic freedom thanks to polyurethane casting resin", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 32 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.2003.12932aaf.003

Undreamed of artistic freedom thanks to polyurethane casting resin

Undreamed of artistic freedom thanks to polyurethane casting resin

Keywords: Flooring, Resins, Polyurethanes

Step into “DAS 2”, a business bistro in the heart of the pedestrian shopping zone in Singen, Germany, and you will find yourself standing on a work of art: spreading out before your feet is a blue-gray floor with a tangle of tightly intertwined brightly coloured lines. “With this unique floor, I wanted to create a contrast to the sober, matter-of-fact interior and thus add a bright, playful note to the business-like ambience”, said Jeanet Hönig when asked to describe the aesthetics and function of the floor. The Dutch artist designed the self-service cafe, and her design was made reality by the firm Walo Bertschinger of Zurich, Switzerland. It has quickly become a popular meeting place, especially among the international business people working in the office complex housing the cafe.

As a decorative element, floors usually have to yield centre stage to the furniture, wall decorations and other accessories, but Jeanet Hönig turns them into works of art using the Conica systems from Conica Technik of Schafthausen, Switzerland. “These polyurethane casting resins give me practically unlimited artistic freedom because they allow me to create the floor on site exactly as I imagined it.” The result is a floor which – in contrast to mass-produced commercial products such as carpeting, laminates and parquet – is unmistakably one-of-a-kind. Jeanet Hönig also appreciates the working properties of the solvent-free material. Because it is applied in liquid form and then hardens, there are no seams or edges to disrupt the artistic image – unless they were intended. The system evens out irregularities in the substrate. It is also possible to create adjoining areas with flowing colour transitions and sharply contoured patterns.

Janet Hönig has made an international name for herself with her “art at your feet”. Her clients include banks, hotels, store chains, restaurants and swimming pools. From the very beginning – for 6 years now she has worked with polyurethane. She depends on Desmodur and Desmophen, two coating raw materials from Bayer AG of Leverkusen, Germany, originally developed to formulate coatings for parking decks and industrial floors. Now these Bayer raw materials are carving out a market for decorative, custom floor coverings (Plates 2 and 3).

“Floor art” is created in three steps. First, a scratch filler is applied as a carrier material, then the artistic design is applied using the casting resin before the complete system is sealed with a protective transparent topcoat. Each of these polyurethane coatings must be allowed to cure for 24 h. Loads can be applied to the floor 3 days after the work is completed.

Plate 2 Jeanet Hönig applies the polyurethane casting resin in liquid form. The system hardens without the formation of seams or edges

Plate 3 The intertwined, brightly colored lines of the blue-gray polyurethane casting resin floor (shown here: the bar area) offers an attractive contrast to the matter-of-fact interior of the business bistro

Jeanet Hönig is confident that her works of art will be long-lived. Thanks to the polyurethane raw materials, the floors are stated to be resistant to UV radiation, lightfast and very strong mechanically. Cigarette burns or scratches caused by shards of glass can be removed since the transparent topcoat can be sanded down and renewed without damaging the pattern beneath. If stress cracks develop in the actual floor itself, the coating is so elastic that it bridges the cracks without tearing.

Details available from Bayer AG. Tel: +49 2 14 30-1; Fax: +49 2 14 30 5 89 23; Web site: www.bayercoatings.com