Fenno Scandia, Author at Fenno Scandia Middle East

Notice something different? In honor of our ten year anniversary in 2021, we’ve decided to brighten things up a bit! Our company and product offerings have rapidly evolved over the last decade and we’re excited to announce a new logo that’s been refreshed to reflect our long-standing commitment to design.

At the inception of Life Floor, our product line was limited to square tiles in neutral tones meant to mimic natural materials and [n]ever-fashionable concrete. Over the years, we’ve introduced triangles, rectangles, hexagons, themed inlays, and custom cutting to the roster. Our color palette has also been expanded to offer more than thirty different colors. As a result, we’ve largely shifted away from monotone applications of Life Floor to more complex, multi-color tile installations.

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While we’ve mixed and matched these options in a countless range of designs, our triangle gradient in particular has become a strong signature look unique to Life Floor. For this reason, it’s celebrated in our updated logo, which remains a symbol of our number one commitment to safety. With this colorful change, we’re enthusiastic that our logo now also reflects our expanded mission to transform aquatic spaces to be more beautiful and inclusive through surface design.

We hope that you join us in our commitments to safety and design as we enter into this exciting new year. Our team is optimistic for brighter days ahead and can’t wait to celebrate a decade of making our industry safer, more inclusive, and more colorful with all of you!

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Indoor cycling specialist BODY BIKE prides itself on its world-leading digital and sustainable solutions – solutions that have today seen it presented with a coveted initiative award by Danish industry body DI Vendsyssel.

Digital innovation

Of particular interest to DI Vendsyssel was BODY BIKE’s move to replace the traditional bike console with an innovative smartphone solution. BODY BIKE users are now able to sync their bikes to an app on their phones, using the phone screen as a real-time display during the workout – as well as, importantly, taking their data with them, allowing them to easily track and plan their training.

Meanwhile, later this year, a new 21” touchscreen bike will launch in collaboration with virtual group exercise specialist Wexer. Offering a great selection of virtual cycling classes, the screen can also rotate 180° to offer training programmes that can be performed on the floor in front of the bike.

“BODY BIKE has seized today’s digital opportunities and is spearheading a number of exciting developments, with many more opportunities already in the pipeline,” says Richard Fynbo of DI Vendsyssel.

“BODY BIKE has recently hired an employee in the R&D department – an engineer who specialises in industrial design – who will be responsible for further developing the existing app, as well as continuing to digitise the company’s products,” confirms BODY BIKE CEO Uffe A Olesen.

Pushing the boundaries

Another exciting BODY BIKE partnership – this time with Plastix, based in Hvide Sande – has led to the development of a more sustainable indoor cycling bike. BODY BIKE OceanIX, manufactured using recycled plastic from old fishing nets, has to date sold more than 1,000 units since its launch in April 2019.

BODY BIKE also publishes its own English-language magazine, RIDE HIGH. Unusually for the sector, but very much in line with BODY BIKE’s out of the box style of thinking, the magazine is not about the company’s own products, but rather is designed to showcase best practice in indoor cycling from around the world – to share learnings, advice and ideas to support and promote the whole sector.

“The company understands how to develop its core products, but at the same time manages to develop new products and services that give customers and users something extra,” says Fynbo.

Having received the DI Vendsyssels Initiative Award 2019, BODY BIKE International A/S is now one out of 18 candidates – from 18 regional associations across the country – for DI’s National Initiative Award. This will be awarded at DI’s annual conference for small and medium-sized businesses in January 2020.

“We are very honoured to have received this award, which recognises our commitment to thinking innovatively but without sacrificing business performance,” says Kim Hessellund, owner of BODY BIKE.

About the Initiative Award 2019

The award is given as a tribute to the enthusiastic, creative and driven players among the small and medium-sized companies in DI’s circle of members.

The recipient of the Initiative Award must have no more than 100 employees; must have created a platform for growth off the back of special initiatives in marketing, technology, education or other key areas; and must have demonstrated a strong performance in areas including turnover and profit.

In 2014 the City of Westfield, New Jersey approached Life Floor and MRC to replace their poured-in-place splash pad surface at Westfield Memorial Pool Complex.

The poured-in-place rubber pellet surface was failing, uncomfortable, and slippery. What the city really needed was a true aquatic play surface that worked as a comprehensive solution, combining safety, comfort, and playful design. A surface that would allow kids to move freely, with easier maintenance, and a design the community could engage with and be excited about.

In the earliest stages of our product, we believed Life Floor made aquatic spaces safer to move through, but it was during this project where we confirmed it’s not just the qualities of the product that let kids play more: it’s the design. The product is practical, but it also has to be applied with the potential for joy.

Life Floor’s first design for Westfield combined geometric shapes in Terra Cotta, Bluebird, Sandstone and River Rock, which were the majority of our colors available at the time. After two years, Bruce Kaufman, the now-retired Director of the Recreation Department, said, “The texture has maintained its integrity over the past two summers and the color has lasted. Kids love it, parents love it. It is much more comfortable than what we had before.”

Using Color and Form to Encourage Play

Taking a few long-term to-do’s from this first installation at Westfield Memorial Pool, we were so excited to be able to offer an additional 19 colors to their 2019 design project as well as new installation techniques. In talking recently with Heather Re, Aquatic Supervisor at Westfield Memorial Pool, she affirmed our belief that we should always strive to make a product that operators and designers can create complete play spaces with:

“We love the new colors you guys have added in the last 4 years. We want the children’s area to really stand out, and now we hope to bring the color to the rest of the complex.”

Re was deeply involved in creating the vision for the new 2019 splash pad design. The city’s main objectives were to refresh the space as a way to drive membership sign-ups and to create a beautiful environment where families could share memories on social media.

“We went back and forth a few times with the design. My first thought was to have a kid’s carwash with the entrance into the zero-depth entry. And I thought it would be cool to have a river that connects the two flowing through the pad.”

Our Life Floor Studio department created several rivers for Westfield, but the city wasn’t sure a river design was the best fit after all. So, the Life Floor Studio tried a new take on Re’s idea.

“We saw the octopus design and it was perfect. That’s it! That’s the one! It still had the river feel to it with tentacles mimicking a river… Even the city admin, who is a much harder sell because he likes things very branded, looked at me and says it’s not even a question, it’s that one. The design was just so fun, it was everything we wanted.”

And with Life Floor’s new installation partners, Inside Edge, the design was truly able to come to life with state of the art installation techniques and customer service. “Your installers are great, I watched the process and everything they did was good and quick! They installed so quickly. If they weren’t completely happy with how a tile was placed they would take the tile up and put down a new one to make sure it was good,” said Re.

Increasing Visitors with Playful Design

Westfield is one of our favorite designs and we’re so pleased to see how a playful design truly impacts the amount of visitors partaking in splash pad play. Recounts Re:

“We get people from all over the tri-state area to see the splash pad because we have Life Floor. When they ask about Life Floor I tell them it’s a soft, safe surface that prevents injuries from happening. And it’s fun! You guys really can do everything for designs. It may cost more because it’s more labor-intensive, but it’ll be safer.”

We’re excited to announce that our new and refreshed website is live. A new website? Yes.

After dedication and hard work, we are delighted to officially announce the launch on April 15 2018. The new site launch is available on the same domain name/URL www.fennoscandia.org

Author: Fenno Scandia

Life Floor – A Bright New Look for 2021

BODY BIKE: Blazing a trail of innovation

How Design, Play, and Safety Came Together at Westfield

Using Color and Form to Encourage Play

Increasing Visitors with Playful Design

Announcing the Launch of our New Website

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