Architectural Record, a magazine with a 128-year history in the USA, has announced the winners of its annual Products of the Year competition, an independent jury of U.S.-based architects and designers selected the products based on their innovation, aesthetics, performance, and sustainability. Among the standout products, the Blooming wooden tile collection has been recognized as the 2025 best product in its category and overall best product of the year.

Winner of the prestigious Red Dot Product Design Best of the Best Award in 2023, Blooming, due to its robustness and durability, can find application in wood flooring of private residences, hospitality facilities but also in high-traffic surfaces of commercial areas.

An Artful Combination to behold.

In conjunction with the walls, the ceiling, furniture and lighting, flooring has a significant influence on the general appearance of a room, not least because of its surface area. Wooden floors create a natural, warm ambience, make the ground look inviting to walk on and are furthermore extremely resilient and durable. This is what may have prompted Italian stone and tile designer Giovanni Barbieri to create wooden flooring for the first time in his creative life. He succeeds in making an innovative concept come to life with his Blooming parquet flooring system, thus winning over the jury. “The carefully designed pattern, which changes with every bloom that is applied, creates an arresting impression and gives interiors a downright artistic atmosphere. The designer moreover manages to unite the benefits of prefabricated parquet flooring with the high-quality appearance of a custom-made product.

Blooming combines sophisticated shapes that are never the same but always well-coordinated with the functionality of a simple, self-explanatory installation system. The multi-layered parquet consists of two bonded sheets of wood: a high-quality, durable oak layer sitting on top of a birch plywood substrate. To ensure its long-term durability, the parquet is glued and can also easily be installed with underfloor heating. Twelve different wood colours and four different surface finishes offer a wealth of design options to suit individual preferences. Depending on how the various colours of the oak are combined, it is possible to achieve either a striking, powerful rhythmic effect or – by selecting similar colours – a more uniform appearance.

The eclectic floral pattern gives no indication that the parquet flooring system is ultimately based on only three standard shapes. Randomly installed, it hence produces a unique floor design for a lively room feel.”

(Red Dot Award Jury statement ).