Surface Design Awards – Complete

• INTERIOR SURFACE OF THE YEAR - NEW
  This is a new category that recognises wall, floor, ceiling and surface design products, including decorative, creative and inventive surfaces for the interior of buildings including both commercial and residential properties.

Ty Nant is a Student Accommodation in Swansea in an 11-storey building with 350 bedrooms, commissioned to EQT and managed by Fresh Student Living.

Ty Nant means 'Home by the Stream' in Welsh, and the scheme takes inspiration from nature, from the water and its surroundings. Sustainability plays a big role in this scheme, from the mindful specification of finishes to the selection of suppliers.

The student accommodation opening date was September 2023 and project value is £35m. The building feature extensive water, carbon and energy saving sustainability features and are targeting a BREEAM “excellent” rating for the student space.

• Reception desk: We believe this should be considered to the Surface Design Award due to the design and material selection. Made of Durat, a colourful solid surface material made with recycled post-industrial plastics collected from manufacturing and waste management companies in Sweden and Finland. The recycled plastic is then granulated into small chips and cast into a resin base to create durable, silky sheets of solid surface in Durat's 100% renewable energy manufacturing facility.
• Floor on reception area and fitness room: Made of Marmoleum Cocoa, which is main linoleum made from 97% natural raw materials, it is CO2 neutral - without the need for offsetting, and arguably one of the most sustainable floor coverings available globally. Marmoleum Cocoa also contains cocoa shells to the traditional Marmoleum ingredients, adding texture and a contemporary feel. It collaborates to reduce waste, improve recycling and contribute to a better environment.
• Green wall: Behind the reception desk there’s Mobilane green wall, an innovative self-watering green system of live plants into interiors that requires low management and bring biophilic benefits of wellbeing to interiors.
• Tables worktop: Made of Smile Plastics panels that are made of recycled plastic packaging. The blue table is also made of smile plastics using a custom Ocean material featuring marine litter.
• Round seat fabric cushion: It uses Camira fabric Oceanic, which is made of 100% post-consumer recycled polyester, including 50% SEAQUAL® YARN, which is made of recycled plastic from the ocean. Each metre of Oceanic contains the equivalent of 26 plastic bottles.

• Exposed ceiling: The communal areas don’t include suspended cailing, which means less material in a building resulting in less labour required, reduced material transportation and less waste created for future refurbishment. It also means that there’s an increased natural lighting, adds extra space since a traditional suspended ceiling often makes a room seem much smaller than it is, and an exposed ceiling gives extra space even in a crowded room.
• Curtains on cinema area: Made of 100% Virgin Wool. It takes the least energy consumption of all the major fibre groups to be converted into usable textile fibre and is both rapidly renewable and biodegradable. The production also creates 0% waste to landfill, and it is top ranked at GIGA material (Green Ideas Green Actions certification).
• Cork wall on study room: Cork is one of the most renewable and sustainable resources on the planet. In fact, a cork tree can be harvested multiple times in its 200-300-year lifespan, supplying cork for many generations. The process of harvesting cork actually has a fairly small ecological footprint compared to other sustainable resources, this is due to cork being both recyclable and biodegradable. Cork harvesting neither cuts down or harms the cork tree itself, meaning it continues living and is incredibly eco-friendly. In fact, cork harvesting actually helps clean the air and undo the damage caused by greenhouse gases.

We answered the questions about Materials and Sustainability on the list of materials, so the answers are in both tabs.