The Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) has a mission and chart of work that keeps students and learning environments at the core of their organization. A4LE strives to improve the places where children learn, through connecting professionals within the learning landscape to imagine, promote, and realize the environments in which we need to foster creativity and educate future generations.

In a healthcare environment, safety is paramount. Falls are a common and devastating complication of patient care, particularly in elderly patients.

FLEXspace (Flexible Learning Environment eXchange) was created on the notion that a space on one campus may be exactly what another campus needs to create.

A campus is never a singular space, it is a place of connection and creativity; it is the foundation for the coming together of people and ideas united in a common endeavor.

Racial injustice has again been on display in ways that have opened wounds and made visible to all of us the discrimination and violence the black community knows all too well.

Design is a communication tool. Culture, language and age can present obstacles, so design must ‘speak’ in non-verbal ways, using primary senses. Eklutna Estates Senior Housing was completed in 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska for Cook Inlet Housing Authority with this design approach in mind.

Infection control is a primary concern within Healthcare settings and the focus of Environmental Service staff across acute care settings worldwide.

When BP decided to re-brand the US ‘Lower 48’ section of their corporation, they named it BPX Energy. They then decided to move the headquarters from Houston, TX to Denver, CO to grow their onshore oil and gas business in the Rocky Mountains.

The idea behind Collision Lab at Cornell Tech is simple— get the best and brightest in the space and let their minds “collide” to create tech solutions, start-up companies, new products and so much more.

Transforming a space from a two-story Art Deco building into a 21st Century learning facility was the challenge assigned to architecture firm Chaulk Studio. Fortunately, designing thoughtful, innovative and socially-impactful projects is what Chaulk specialises in.

As one of the largest library systems in North America, Calgary Public Library is an important part of the community it serves. The new main branch was created and inspired by its diverse inhabitants, as more than half of Calgary’s residents are active cardholders.

Following the devastation left in the wake of 2004’s Hurricane Ivan, The Lodge at Gulf State Park was established.

During Hale Junior School’s original consultation with SITE Architecture Studio, school leadership made it clear they wanted to create a learning environment that mirrored their educational philosophy of Prepare, Teach, and Connect.

A large body of evidence attests to the fact that the physical environment impacts patient stress, staff effectiveness, and quality of care provided in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

North American commercial property owners spend up to $1 billion each year on remediation of structures and the replacement of floor coverings as a result of too much moisture in the concrete. This is just one of the many items that school plant managers must address as they work to build safe and healthy schools for their students and staff.

FLEXspace (Flexible Learning Environment eXchange) was conceived on the notion that a space on one campus may be exactly what another campus needs to create. As the learning landscape has shifted to adapt more active learning spaces, and to explore the entire campus as a learning landscape, FLEXspace has enabled educators and learning space planners to offer students a virtual field trip; the chance to share ideas and experience other learning spaces with a limited travel budget may hinder. 

Green Schools National Network (GSNN) works with educators, government and non-governmental organizations and agencies, and private partners to create broad-based initiatives and successful strategies aimed at fostering healthy, sustainable K-12 schools across the United States. Founded in 2008 by principals, superintendents, and teachers, GSNN is devoted to accelerating student achievement through the implementation of green, healthy, and sustainable practices as outlined in our GreenPrint® for green, healthy, and sustainable schools.

At their peak, the closures affected at least 55.1 million students in 124,000 U.S. public and private schools. Nearly every state either ordered or recommended that schools remain closed through the end of the 2019-20 school year.

We 🖤 NY. Especially in the fall, when we get to gather yearly with some of the leading hospitality designers in our industry at BDNY. This year, we brought two new collections to BDNY: Desert Lights, our sixth collaboration with Rockwell Group, and Soundscape, a new LVT with acoustic backing. See some of our favorite moments from the show below.

School buildings and sites, which cover 2 million acres of land and operate over 7.5 billion gross square feet of building area, are responsible for significant carbon emissions in the U.S.

Our Custom Design Studio can transform your imaginings into unique flooring to fit your space. Our artists take a creative approach to designing one-of-a-kind, custom solutions for your hotel or hospitality space. Whatever pattern you can imagine, we can create.

Our Pattern Coding Format may be confusing at first glance, so we offer this format table to help. Using this table, you can see that VF47731 indicates a canvas field, CF47037 is a colorpoint field, PR30191 is a print rug, YN25708 is a CYP runner, and CT20845 is colorpoint tile.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is pleased to introduce Soundscape, a new innovation that pairs LVT in wood visual planks with acoustic backing underneath to absorb and stop sound from traveling.

You could call this a marriage of the minds. John Stephens is the Vice President of Marketing for Shaw Contract. Shannan Billings is the Senior Director of Global Sourcing for Shaw Industries, the parent company to Shaw Contract.

In the world of design, sustainability can take many forms. It can involve a renewable material. It can mandate buildings that respect the geography of a place.

I’m an optimist, by nature, so I’ve had to befriend failure over the course of my career—seeing it as instructive for the next big thing, rather than a referendum on my leadership or the capacity of change in design.

Second chances abound in the work of emerging artist Juli Bolaños-Durman.

We have to reevaluate the idea that this land is here for our consumption.

City governments are increasingly recognized as leaders on environmental issues. But one important tool they use to promote sustainability—procurement—sometimes flies under the radar.

More than 60 trans-disciplinary projects including two large-scale, site-specific installations. Five curators. A six-person advisory board. A 240-page book. And countless hours of investigation, meditation, experimentation and scholarship. Those are just a few ingredients in the heady stew of “Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial,” the sixth installment of the museum’s signature exhibition.

Today, the design industry is complex. Key ingredients used to be attention to detail, market analysis, and strong technical knowledge. However, ethics and building consensus increasingly surface as more important design skills.

In the jungle of the Congo Basin, in a part of the Democratic Republic of Congo that is six hours by motorcycle from the nearest airstrip, the Ilima Primary School serves as a learning and community center that enables and encourages integration with local wildlife.

That starting point of elusive, natural beauty is the inspiration behind the new custom collection Mist.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is pleased to introduce Inhabit Sheet and Abide LVT, a new resilient flooring collection of natural wood visuals that offer a welcoming space in acute care settings.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is pleased to introduce Terrace LVT , a resilient flooring collection featuring 12” x 24” LVT tiles and a fresh abstract pattern that evokes a sense of peace and restfulness.

Living in a time of increasing choices and possibilities made answering this question even more important. Our brand refresh was born out of a need to have an answer to this question. We know that purpose-driven companies have 4X the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of companies in the S&P 500 Consumer Sector. Generating a vision that connects us all enables us to better connect with our clients, and it empowers them to choose Shaw Contract.

On the front of the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) international conference, a group of Disney fans and the curious gathered at Disneyland. After all, when your conference is held near one of the most magical places on earth, you must take the opportunity to connect to your childlike self and get inspired by a brand you grew up with.

We’re thrilled to announce that our HQ in Cartersville, Georgia, the Shaw Create Centre, has been awarded top honors in the Workplace category in Fast Company’s 2019 Innovation by Design Awards.

Dating back to the eighth century, dyeing technique consisted of taking fabrics that are bound, stitched, folded, twisted, compressed, or clamped then dipping them into a color bath.

With the recent launch of Joy Squared, Shaw Contract is adding an LVT product to our portfolio in a square tile format. We thought we would take a moment to explain what LVT is and how it differs from a more traditional vinyl offering, VCT.

For this year’s Design Awards, we pulled together an elite group of judges from all around the globe. For us, the Design Awards are a celebration of the creative vision architects and designers bring to the world. They highlight the truly innovative and inspiring work being done by the design community.

Meet Joy Squared, an American-made LVT collection of 24” x 24” (61 cm x 61 cm) tiles inspired by the spontaneous and joyous moments of our youth.

Experimenting with color is what the Dye Lab carpet tile collection is all about. For years, Dye Lab has brought a lush intimacy into the spaces we work, rest, and converge. Now, we’re expanding its reach with exciting new colors.

This year’s summer event at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. promises to be airy, fun, and nostalgic.

If you’re like us, you’re both recovering from and reliving the magic of NeoCon after a week of amazing design and fabulous events. We’re back at the Create Centre reflecting on the show and all of the people we met.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is pleased to introduce Living Systems, a new Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Silver collection of 9” x 36” carpet tiles that represents a holistic design approach. Embracing the concept of regenerative design, Living Systems integrates our human needs in the built environment with sustainable integrity.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is excited to introduce Suited, a collection designed to bring an innate confidence to workspace interiors.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is pleased to introduce Desert Lights, a new carpet and rug collection that draws inspiration from the plants, animals and geography of the American Southwest.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is excited to introduce reFrame, a category-defining collection of 9” x 36” woven LVT resilient tiles, that blurs the boundary between hard and soft surface. reFrame sets the stage for both subtle or dramatic color play, transforming spaces with a convergence of tonal gradations and color.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is excited to introduce Gradation, a carpet tile collection that explores a new spectrum of color – a realm that merges the digital environment we live in and the physical interior spaces we inhabit. With Gradation, multiple hues combine to create distinctive and unique results. Color has a profound, subliminal effect on how we process and interact with the world, others and ourselves – this concept is at the core of Gradation.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is pleased to introduce Community, a collection designed to work together in harmony. Each of its four core products complements the others, giving designers unlimited options to meet the demands of the new commercial environments.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces, is excited to announce that Dye Lab, a best-selling collection, now has an expanded color range with thirteen unique, new saturated hues. Dye Lab brings lush intimacy or expansive and dramatic floorscapes to the spaces where we work, rest and come together.

This year’s HD Expo marked another year of knowledge-share and connectivity within the hospitality design industry. Take a look below at some highlights from the show.

This year’s design award program saw over 700 submissions from around the world. To select winners, we gathered ten designers to evaluate and select their favorite designs. The process took two days, and each submission category was evaluated by a group of judges, with Shaw Contract designers and marketing leaders facilitating dialogue. Together, the teams selected 36 category winners and 6 final winners, to be announced soon.

Shaw Contract is pleased to announce that it has opened a new showroom and office in Dubai, UAE. Located in the Dubai Design District (d3), the new space offers an opportunity to showcase the company’s product portfolio and meet with clients and aligned dealers to discuss their flooring project needs.

On this day and all days, we’re making an effort to consume less and produce less waste. One of the best ways we can do that is to use less plastic - a cause that we’re actively tackling through product development.

Around this time last year, we were preparing to introduce our collaboration with Stockholm-based design studio Form Us With Love at NeoCon. This year, we’re thrilled to share the Inside Shapes Design Tool with you. It’s a digital toolkit that empowers designers to create a floorscape using the Inside Shapes collection.

The impact of color in our inhabited spaces has a profound, subliminal effect on how we process and interact with the world, others and ourselves.

In its 14 years, the Shaw Contract Design Awards Program has given nearly $150,000 to non-profit and charitable organizations around the world. Each year, the final winners and People’s Choice Award winner select a charity of their choice to donate $2000 USD as part of their prize winnings. This allows designers the opportunity to make an impact beyond the built environment.

This year’s Shaw Contract Design Award Final and People’s Choice winners have shown us how designers are reacting to evolving needs in the built environment.

Shaw Contract, a design leader in commercial flooring solutions and surfaces for the healthcare industry, is pleased to introduce Bio-Based Polyurethane, a new flooring platform designed for today’s healthcare environments. The new flooring solution is first presented in the collection Innate & In Tandem, a coordinating tile and sheet product composed of the bio-based polyurethane material for ease of installation and seamless transitions.

Anyone who follows us on social media or who had the chance to visit our booth at NeoCon this year will have been as excited as we are by the launch of Inside Shapes, the new creative toolkit designed to take carpet tile from being a surface covering to an interactive design tool.

It’s a universal truth. But what if home was not simply a place but a state of mind? The Haven collection reimagines home as a mood, an idea, a quality of comfort and familiarity that feeds our instinctual desire to feel grounded in the world. This collection of modular carpet tiles is designed to add the comforts and familiarity of a residential space to the contract market drawing inspiration from the singular qualities we associate with home - comfort, well-being, warmth, softness and a profound sense of place.

Shaw Contract Engineered Hardwood. Nature. Reimagined. Wood flooring, beloved for its warm, tactile nature, has been reimagined by Shaw. We start with the highest quality timbre. We add artisanal craftsmanship. Then we combine them in an innovative manufacturing process that honors the authentic properties of the material while advancing its capabilities to a new level of performance. Hardwood has the power to bring warmth, familiarity and tactility to commercial spaces. Unique visuals and textures anchor us to natural elements in our day-to-day lives.

Natural Choreography is a collaboration with renowned global architecture and design firm, the Rockwell Group.

You may have heard the news that all our commercial carpet manufacturing facilities worldwide are now carbon neutral. It is a giant step toward creating a better future with products and business practices that are healthy and environmentally conscious. But what is carbon neutrality, and how will it contribute to the overall sustainability of the built environment? We’ve answered some of the questions you may have about carbon neutral manufacturing and how it works.