Winner of Design Awards For Shade Solutions & Fabrics

Markilux is the only shade solution manufacturer in the world to win the Design Award at the prestigious R+T Global Design Fair –  a feat it has repeated at every show since 1988. Markilux innovation, design elegance, technology, and use of premium materials makes us the recognized worldwide gold standard in shade solutions. Markilux markets the only complete line of full-cassette shade solutions sold in North America.

In addition, Markilux has a highly developed knowledge of textiles and advanced fabric design for awnings, canopies and window shades, having been in the textile business since 1927.  Markilux created the worldwide design standards for solution-dyed acrylic fabrics used in high-end, custom awnings, and are known for their innovative, High-Tech Awning Fabric designs in acrylic and polyester, including Sunsilk Nano-Clean, Sunvas, Sunsilk Perla, Perfotex and Vu-screen.

As you review our broad range of retractable cassette awnings, canopies and exterior window shades, and compare them to others on the market, you will quickly see why Markilux is the preferred partner for architects and designers worldwide. Markilux has built quality, design elegance, practicality and superior engineering into every detail of each product. While performing as a superior shade solution that helps integrate indoor and outdoor space, the design and style delivered by your Markilux is also an enhancement to any commercial or residential property.

Markilux Style & Engineering Suit Architectural and Design Requirements

An interview with Andreas Kramer

Professor Andreas Kramer is a freelance industrial designer and teaches computer-aided design at the University of The Arts in Bremen.
He has worked closely with Markilux in the development of their designs for the past 13 years.

Design is something dynamic. It is always an expression of the sign of the times and trends. Is there a current trend for awnings for patios and balconies, a “garden” or “outdoor living” trend?

I do not think there is a special garden or outdoor living trend per se. However, 
individualization is very important. Target
audiences for products are becoming smaller and more specific, so
demands on products are becoming more
diverse. It is noticeable that far more is being invested in gardens and outdoor living. Consumers are endeavoring to
landscape their gardens and outdoor spaces on a par with their indoor living
space.

Designs and styles are also increasing in significance. For example the feng-shui garden: the boundary between indoors and outdoors disappears.
Shading systems play a very special role in this area. In fact, shading systems lie precisely on this imaginary border:
building or garden? Should the cover match
 the living room or the flower bed? Should the awning 
match the architecture of the building, or the garden? The aim is to observe general living trends and to integrate these concepts into modern sun protection.

To what extent is the timelessness aspect of importance in this context and what does timeless design mean to you?

What we today regard as timeless is how we perceive 
time: practical functionality, minimalism, sustainability 
and innovation, to name but a few examples.  As a shading system normally has a long life cycle, the timelessness aspect is certainly important. The fact is that an awning is not something that is readily changed. It should harmonize and blend in with the façade. For this reason, Markilux decided to orientate itself towards contemporary concepts in architecture and design. And this is precisely what Markilux's current designs reflect with their artistic concept of form and functionality.

Professor Kramer, you have made significant contributions towards the designs of Markilux retractable awnings and exterior solar shades.  An example is the Markilux 6000 with its modular system, geared
 fully to individualization.  Markilux is now expanding this design philosophy across products.  What can we expect from the new design concept?

As you correctly remarked, we have further developed the design concept. The Markilux 6000 design style range is being 
extended by the addition of the 930 Swing,
a new awning; and the 990, the successor model to the smallest Markilux cassette awning. The design of both new models is very restrained, compact and reduced, but elegant and innovative at the same time. And, of course, of the highest quality. Both models match modern architectural trends perfectly. The markilux 5010 will also be launched on to the market in the new
design idiom. It will be the successor to a classic, the 5005.

How would you describe its common design features and what is the concept behind it?

I think the most common feature of the new Markilux design idiom is its modern, timeless nature which gives it an unmistakable and
recognizable character. The Markilux design artistic form uses simple and comprehensible elements that are
easily recognized – just like the Apple iPod, for example.  As far as the basic design concept is concerned, the individualization aspect plays a large role. The concept
as such offers an excellent solution that will suit almost all requirements: from an open to a closed system;
from minimalist and simple to extravagant and
technically complex. In a certain way, the models
build on each other with regard to technical comfort.
The basic model is, as it were, the Markilux 930 swing, followed by the 990, 6000 und 5010 full cassette awnings.

Cover and technology in their purest form, minimalism - that sounds somewhat like retro design 
– return to concepts and styles of times gone by.
  What significance does “retro” have for the design of today and tomorrow?

Retro design is a topic of much discussion and controversy
in the design scene. This extends from “it‘s
always been around” to “good design must always be new”. As far as the content of “retro” design is concerned, it‘s a
matter of using existing, sometimes forgotten elements and re-interpreting them in a modern way .
Ideally, this creates something new. Something the
user can more easily identify with because he is already familiar with it.  For example, the “VW Beetle“ and its derivation “New Beetle“.  I think
that this concept has been very successful for both new Markilux awning systems.