Light needs a surface
In architecture, daylight is rarely an element in itself. It becomes visible through what it touches: a wall, a worktop, a floor. The flatter and more even that surface, the more purely the light pattern remains readable.
In this home the light falls in through window louvres and sweeps across the floor in parallel bands, up to a walnut cabinet wall. What stands out is not so much the light itself, but the fact that the pattern is nowhere interrupted.
What joints do to a light pattern
On a tiled floor that same play of light would look different. Every joint forms a line with its own colour and its own depth, and every tile edge catches the light slightly differently. The shadow pattern of the louvres is therefore cut through by a second, orthogonal grid.
The result is busier: two patterns that have nothing to do with each other, laid over one another. In a sleekly designed space that works against the intention of the design.
On a seamless resin floor that second grid does not exist. There is one uninterrupted surface, and the only pattern you see is the one the architect devised with the louvres.
Flatness is an achievement
Seamless does not automatically mean flat. In raking light — light falling across a surface at a sharp angle — even small differences in level become visible, because every slight undulation casts its own shadow.
This kind of light is therefore also the strictest test of the quality of a resin floor. That the pattern here runs on unbroken and without distortion says as much about the preparation of the substrate and the workmanship as about the system itself.
That is why we work with matched systems: primer, scraping coat, resin flooring compound and top coat are developed and produced in house, so that the behaviour of the entire build-up is predictable. And that is why we support our partners technically as well — on site if needed.
This project was made with our products by the installer on site.
The system used
The floor was carried out in PSL 5450, our UV-resistant polyurethane resin floor, in a soft grey shade. Properties that count in this context:
- Seamless, so that the light pattern runs on uninterrupted
- UV-resistant, so colourfast in the zones that receive direct sunlight every day
- Wear-resistant and water-repellent, suitable for an intensively used kitchen
- Soft to the touch and suitable for underfloor heating
In this kind of space the UV resistance is no detail. Where light comes in along fixed bands, a less colourfast system will in time show visible differences between the lit and the shaded zones — exactly along the pattern the louvres draw.
Colour and gloss level
The soft grey was chosen as a neutral carrier next to the walnut. Even more important for the play of light is the gloss level: a matt to lightly satin finish scatters the light and keeps the shadow bands soft, while a high-gloss surface would give reflections that drown out the pattern.
Want to know more?
Are you working on a project in which the incidence of light is a supporting element? We are happy to think along about the choice of system, colour and level of finish. Feel free to get in touch with us.