Attendees of Coverings—taking place April 18 through 21 at McCormick Place in Chicago—will experience the creative visions of four talented designers come to life during the seventh iteration of the Installation Design Showcase.

The Installation Design Showcase will allow attendees the opportunity to escape the show floor and participate in the newly designed courtyard setting. The four vignettes will spotlight tile applications in a variety of commercial settings, including a retail boutique, a spa lobby, a clubhouse bar and lounge and a boutique hotel lobby. The vignettes are uniquely designed to capture the many different moods and aesthetics that can be achieved with tile and stone materials and the various applications demonstrate how advanced techniques affect the overall look and performance of the space.

Design teams led by representatives from Alena Capra Designs, Architecture is Fun, FGM Architects and Healing Environments will be paired with installers who hold Five Star Recognition from the National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA) and certification from the Ceramic Tile Education Foundation (CTEF) to build each team’s creative vision. Bellota, Lackmond, European Tile Masters, Laticrete, MAPEI, Schluter, TEC/H.B. Fuller and USG will all supply the necessary materials, supplies and tools to build each vignette. John Cox, of Cox Tile and Stone, has worked closely with each design and installation team, offering technical and executional consultation.

Designer Alena Capra, principal of Alena Capra Designs and the Coverings Industry Ambassador, will incorporate a number of trends in tile materials, including 3-D effects, shades of aqua, bold prints and fabric looks, to create a chic retail boutique environment; the design team from Healing Environments, led by Susan El-Naggar, will illustrate the firm’s commitment to creating healthy environments that promote healing and inner peace with their spa lobby vignette; the design team from FGM Architects, led by Louise Kowalczyk and Raegan Porter, has embraced the opportunity to collaborate with installers to demonstrate the myriad of ways tile can be used beyond the expected inside the golf clubhouse bar and lounge and the design team from Architecture Is Fun sought to create a vibrant social space that is dynamic yet intimate, and serves an environment where visitors can ‘play and stay’ in their boutique hotel lobby vignette.

“The Installation Design Showcase is a unique collaborative process that encapsulates the full scope of a tile project from design and specification to installation all executed in a compressed timeline,” said Cox. “The close collaboration between the design and installation professionals reiterates how integral the two professions are to ensuring the continued success of the tile and stone industry.”

For more information, visit coverings.com/IDS.