Wall systems are malleable. They can be as understated or as attention-grabbing as designers want them to be. Design options in the wall systems market are expanding at a break-neck pace, and designers and interior architects are now beginning to see and use wall products’ full capabilities.
In the seventh floor Exhibition Hall at NeoCon this year, the Maars Living Walls booth felt less like a booth and more like a full-scale showroom. Set on a raised floor and enclosed in Maars Living Walls’s products, the space created an experience for visitors – a place where designers could see and feel what the brand can offer.
Headquartered in the Netherlands, in a city called Harderwijk, Maars Living Walls has a rich history that reflects the company’s resourcefulness and its natural ability to stay current while preserving its legacy and having some fun all at the same time.
Entrepreneur L. Maars started a florescent lighting company soon after the Second World War in 1946. In the 1960s, he expanded his business to include ceilings, walls and climate control systems, and a full range of light, air, walls and ceiling offerings emerged. In 1979, Mr. Maars, Jr. took over the company, becoming owner and CEO, and the brand continued to flourish. The demands for high quality partitioning systems increased in the mid-1990s, and Maars continued to innovate with the release of its Metaline partitioning wall, a flat, sleek and contemporary solution unique to the market.
In 2001, Maars consolidated its product offering by selling its lighting and ceiling divisions and chose to focus entirely on partition walls – seeking to capitalize on its strengths in offering a modular aesthetic and engineering.
“The Dutch are an extremely hardworking and family-oriented people,” said Robert Craven, Managing Director for North America, in an officeinsight interview about the brand’s progress, products and vision for the future. “There’s a lot of hard work that goes into what we do, but we have a lot of fun. Both of those things are important parts of our identity.”
Since entering the North American market at the end of 2014, the brand has been quietly but steadily expanding its presence here.
“The go-to-market strategy is still the same for us as we expand in the U.S.,” said Mr. Craven. “We’re a design-driven company, so we listen very closely to the designer and architect communities in developing our products. But the specification types are much higher in the Europe and the Middle East, compared to the U.S., using steel walls and other solutions with high fire ratings.”
While the amount of modular construction in Europe and the Middle East sits at a hefty 60-70%, Mr. Craven noted, that number in the U.S. is just 17-20%.
“In the U.S. the market is still young and growing. It’s focused more on wall- and glass-based solutions to be used in open office spaces, But, as the market continues to mature, those specifications will become more robust, especially in the arena of acoustics.”
Maars Living Walls had a great NeoCon this year, introducing three new products and earning Best of NeoCon Gold and Silver awards for two.
SQAPE, its new steel concept wall, won Best of NeoCon Gold. The steel wall has a minimalist design that simultaneously brings privacy and continuity to open office layouts.
“All elements are innovatively integrated in the construction, resulting in an uncompromising interplay of lines,” reads the product description. “This design continuity is also in the door module, which is completely concealed; there is no doorframe or visible hinges because of pivot construction. Door-handle options are also integrated with the wall. SQAPE creates visual privacy as well as sound privacy with exceptionally high acoustic performance of 60 dB.”
Winning a Best of NeoCon Silver Award, the new Acoustical Sliding Door is a simple, elegant design that seals the entire door for superior acoustic performance.
In third-party lab testing, the door keeps sound in (or out) up to 35 decibels (dB). When compared to a normal sliding door, this is an improvement of 15 dB, where every 3 dB is a doubling in sound insulation. We experienced the sound performance of the door firsthand at NeoCon, and we were not disappointed!
“90% of our sliding doors go to the U.S. because of space limits that that market deals with,” noted Mr. Craven. “When we’re designing our products, acoustics are at the top of the list, and this solution speaks to that. We’re constantly listening to the market and trying to provide the solutions they want and need.”
Maars also introduced Carré, a single-glazed wall solution that enables architects and designers to create a loft-like industrial space for open office environments.
“Carré was designed so specifiers can create warehouse-like “window walls” using the glazed relocatable walls from Maars,” reads the product description. “Any type of pattern can be designed with steel or aluminum profiles – grids, horizontal or vertical muntins. Carré creates a continuous design by applying the muntins on the glazed-wall panels and doors, maintaining the movable properties and resulting in a single cohesive design. It’s an ideal temporary or flexible solution for a variety of interior spaces.”
The Carré applications we’ve seen are beautiful. While it may have been inspired by the industrial language that has permeated office interiors of the past few years, it can also be be used to create interiors that are less industrial and more refined, delicate and opulent.
“As we continue to look at new product investment, we’re looking at making construction time faster, but we’re also looking at the user, giving the user the capabilities to change and be flexible.
“We listen very intently to design trends, and gather a lot of our inspiration from what designers are challenging us to do. Designers were moving away from rectilinear shapes and toward more organic spaces, so we introduced a Double Glazed Curved Wall that would address that shift.”
In response to the increasing demand for cubes in “open space” offices, Maars introduced its lineaCube in 2015. The product, which won Best of NeoCon Gold in 2016, is a completely independent space with its own ventilation, acoustic insulation and absorption, and with power, data, audio and lighting integrated into the ceiling.
The brand’s high level of design quality is framed by a common, seamless language.
“We have a very robust product offering, and they speak a similar language. They interact together, so you can blend them together to meet your needs, rather than having to adjust your needs to the product.”
It’s a smart approach that has been great for business.
In 2016, Maars celebrated its 70th anniversary – a huge milestone for a company that continues to stay hungry for growth and innovation. It currently exports to 65 countries around the world, and is working on around 120 project in the U.S. at any one time. But that growth is happening in a canny, nuanced manner.
“Our success at NeoCon was tremendous,” said Mr. Craven. “We currently have 11 dealers that we’re working with, and we’re expanding that number in the future, but we’re making sure we set up those partnerships so that everyone we work with is well-informed and knows who we are. We’re growing in a very strategic, step-by-step, thoughtful way.”
Cheers to now almost 71 years, and to a bright future on Maars!