Circolare

From April 18 until April 23 2023, Novel Grey presented its new collection during the Milan Design Week at the Circolare. Curated by Isola.design, Circolare hosted 58 sustainable and circular presentations under the theme Nothing happens if nothing happens.

The circolare was hosted at the Pallazo Lombardia on a 4000m2 covered square. At this magnificent location Novel Grey was able to show its collection and tell the story about sustainable concrete and how we are able to create it. We were also able to present our Camber & Curve wall tiles with the mother-in-pearl glitter finish and the glow-in-the-dark tiles.

Queen Máxima

The very first guest of the Novel Grey presentation was Dutch Queen Máxima. Interior design is a personal passion for her Majesty, with a special interest for sustainable design. She was eager to learn the key and essence of sustainable concrete and enthusiastic about the look and feel of our wall tiles. When she asked about the application of the tiles one of our suggestions was to use it as art objects on a wall, when she replied: “Wall pieces? You should cover a whole hall with it!”

Showing and explaining how concrete can be made sustainable helps when you have the material at hand. Making our work tangible through samples, cut throughs and raw material gives people insight in what we do and how it can surround them; making it easier for them to relate and use.

Fruitful

We look back at a very fruitful and busy week, both on and off from the presentation. A lot of connections have been made and many people were excited by the look and feel of the Novel Grey tiles and the possibilities to use them! We look forward to all the future cooperations that will emerge from our presentation.

Be sure to check out our collection or request a brochure.

Novel Grey has won the Sustainability Award during the important Milanese Isola Design Awards ceremony. we were awarded the prize for our luxurious wall tiles, made of sustainable concrete. Novel Grey knows how to make exceptional three-dimensional tiles with this new sustainable material. With this, we want to make a responsible and aesthetic contribution to making interiors more sustainable.

The Isola Design Awards aim to enable designers to be innovative in their products and design processes by experimenting with existing technologies and creating new ones. Out of 12 categories: Furniture, Seating, Lighting, Tableware, Textile, Product, Material, Mobility, Sustainability, Digital, Outdoor, Innovation, Novel Grey received the Award for Sustainability.

The Novel Grey wall tiles are so special because the company uses the positive properties of concrete, without dealing with the high CO2 emissions associated with concrete by using landfill as raw material. By creating cementitious material out of waste of the metal industry we have managed to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete by 76%. The tiles are cast in all kinds of shapes and are room temperature cured, saving on curing energy as well. Thus we follow the principle of Re-use, Re-duce and Re-cycle.

Better and more beautiful

Our motto is ‘making the world a more beautiful and better place.’ By making beautiful and special wall tiles from sustainable concrete, we want to be part of the solution for a better and healthier future. This award confirms that the market also needs this. It is a stepping stone to even more innovations which we are working hard on, because it always has to be better and more beautiful!”

Globally relevant

To achieve the Sustainability Development Goals 2050, we all face an enormous task. Something that we also notice from the reactions from the market. Since we started early last year, samples are shipped all over the world; from New York to Seoul and from Milan to London. And also to Tallinn, Stockholm, Paris and may more. In addition, we reached the top 5 in the Utrecht Innovation Top 20, we are among the Top 100 best Dutch Designs of 2022, now the Isola Design Award and there is also a nomination for the Green Product Award in March!

Do you want to change the future with us together? Do you want to experience the same feeling the jury had? Request a sample and enjoy our wonderful wall tiles!

2017 – Start following our dreams

We started to follow our dreams. What started with a homemade concrete stepping stone for our garden was in hindsight, the first step to our sustainable concrete tiles. After the creation of our first design we started Beton-Lab in December 2017.

2018 – Presenting Designs

A year later we presented 6 different designs at  the Dutch Design Week. Among these designs we showed concrete coaster Modi. This year was a year of learning of trial and error. The feedback we got at the events we attended were really valuable.and gave us the push we needed to strenghten our expertise and let it grow.

2019 – Our first wall tile

We did our first bespoke projects and started some cool cooperations. At Design District Rotterdam in June 2019, a fair for (Dutch) interior designers, we had a tiny booth with all our work. Our concrete coaster Modi, not particularly a product for interior design, needed some extra attention, so we made a  wall object which we presented there. By accident we created our first wall tile! By the end of 2019 we presented our Modi wall tile and a glimpse of the first sustainable wall tile with our prototype Summit at the Dutch Design Week.

2020 – Developing sustainable concrete

With a steep learning curve we produced our first Modi wall tiles for a Amsterdam based restaurant named No Rules in Februari, to find ourselves in lockdown the month after. However, the pandemic gave us the opportunity to explore the possibilities of cementfree inorganic polymer concrete. In April we got our hands on all possible raw materials and started experimeting and desiging recipes. After countless tests we found a workable mixture, but it took until November 2021 to master the process.

2021 – Start 3D wall tiles

By the end of 2020 we got an idea for a new brand; So we started our research for ‘Label X’. With our first 3D tile design, the Zenith. Concrete is castable, making it possible to give high attention to detail and specific threedimensional shapes. We got inspired by mountain peaks and valleys as they depict our successes and fails in our designing process and research. Zenith is the final iteration of our concept wall tile Summit and made it possible to innovate on the production process even further.

2022 – Launching Novel Grey

After more than one year of research and design, we eventually launched Novel Grey in March 2022 with 3 kinds of sustainable concrete, 5 different wall tile designs and 3 still on the way. After all those years of research and experimentation with concrete, we managed to use the experiences and knowledge of concrete product design in fantastic wall tiles that stimulate the senses. By listening, looking ahead and innovating, we were able to create impressive, authentic, handmade wall tiles and objects. Lush in shape and full of tactility. Sustainable in its core.

2023 and the future

With 3 prototypes in the making and focussing on improving the excisting designs and processes, Novel Grey is working on a solid future. We choose to stand in the solution rather than waiting until we find the perfect mixture or design. This means we’re also working on designing on floor and outdoor tiles, each with their specific demands. We look forward to some promising collaborations and of course we keep on experimenting with gold, glitter, crystals, coatings and other special materials that cross our path.

Are you just as thrilled as we are when looking to the future? Do you want to know more about our luxurious sustainable wall tiles?