Mixed material furniture is becoming more and more popular as it provides numerous aesthetic and performance options to designers. Norix recently did a designer interview  on the new Forté Series furniture covering ‘Materiality.’

The Materiality of Forte is a video featuring Tara Rae Hill, Principal + Designer of LittleFISH think tank. Tara discusses the process of selecting mixed materials for the new Forté Series, along with reasons for colors chosen in order to conform to a natural environment atmosphere.

Below, you can watch the video and read about various fabric materials that are available, along with the aesthetic and performance options they offer:

We wanted a palette of colors that was really heavily influenced and inspired by nature.  There are 8 specific hues. Within those hues there is a lot of interplay, so we’ve really wanted them to mix and match and we’ve really wanted that palette to really evoke the natural landscape that surrounds them within their regional district. And I think that the standard offerings do that just super fantastic.

So within the standard offerings we have several different materials. One is a roto-molded PE, which is for the chair, seat, and also the chair bays. And the one thing I love about a roto-mold is that you really cannot get a higher performance durability and even more so an ease of clean with a roto-mold and really any other product out there. So, in addition to the roto-molded PE, we have wood and metal options and they are both for the bays. So when you do a wood base to the chair it just softens it up, it feels warm, it feels a little bit more inviting to me, it feels very residential, it feels very timeless and very classic.

And then if you go into the metal base, that kind of look we tend to think of as just being a very international style, that’s super universal. And then last, the third section of the standard offerings is just a wonderful array of upholsteries, 32 total, 4 categories, 8 colors per category. And again, its much like the naturals collection, the more you start interplaying these finishes, and I believe you can do it all in one space, I believe the layering will improve and I just think the more fun the look will become.

There is a lot of evidence-based design research right now out in the community and what it is indicating is that within healthcare when interiors are more stimulating and have a lot of color interest to them.  There is research there to indicate that the healing rate not only increases, but needs for things like pain-relieving medication decreases, and even return rates to go back for a certain illness and there is a lot of evidenced-based research that continues to show that. It is also believed that possibly the practitioners are a little more at ease too and with that they are providing a better service and level of care. And then overall, the healthcare experience is better. I think that Norix has done a really great job at that.

Would you like to learn more about the fabrics you saw in this video? Check out our previous posts on the following, and stay tuned for our post on nylon fabric.

Learn about:

Polyurethane fabrics

Vinyl fabrics

Crypton fabrics