In the hands of Senso, seamless flooring has shaken off its industrial beginnings to become a design, lifestyle and sustainability statement.

Enter a warehouse or factory from the 1960s and chances are you’ll find seamless flooring underfoot. It was in this decade that industrial epoxy floors – with their long list of touted benefits including durability, cleanability and quick application – hit the ground running. But for all its practicalities, the flooring is derived from petrochemicals, posing environmental and health risks.

Any innovation in the sector had waned after the 1980s, and what remained was an unsustainable flooring solution. ‘This is what I wanted to change,’ says Senso founder David Bols. It was 2004, and the 24-year-old Dutchman decided to sink his small savings into an alternative. From a one-bedroom apartment above a bar in Amsterdam, Senso was born. ‘My dream was to develop a product that was both beautiful and long-lasting but also prioritized sustainability and had a positive influence on people’s wellbeing.’

Today, Senso offers the highest-graded certified sustainable product in the market. Crafted from plant-based resins, natural binders and toxin-free pigments, Senso flooring carries all the benefits of its petroleum-based equivalents without the harmful chemicals – and with 96 per cent fewer carbon emissions, eliminating 1 million tonnes of CO₂ over the product’s lifetime. Considering wellbeing and post-use, the flooring contributes to better indoor air quality and is recyclable. These efforts were highlighted in 2019 when Senso achieved Cradle to Cradle certification.

Photo: Mart Goossens / Bureau Fraai

Crafted from plant-based resins, natural binders and toxin-free pigments, Senso flooring carries all the benefits of its petroleum-based equivalents without harmful chemicals.

But the road to realizing Bols’s dream wasn’t as seamless as the flooring itself. Arriving at the unique recipe that’s used today followed a decade of trial and error, tweaking and fine-tuning. Not to mention overcoming both the scepticism of outsiders who doubted its feasibility for the mainstream, and the pushback from petrochemical corporations threatened by Senso’s sustainability focus.

The brand remained undeterred and eventually the world caught up with its innovative and design-driven approach, which is welcomed by clients such as Louis Vuitton, Porsche and Bang & Olufsen. From that tiny Amsterdam apartment, the brand has gone global, with a presence in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia.