Professional • Insight In Good Company: Philippe Desart
The managing director at Arte shares his thoughts on the importance of wallcoverings and his admiration for his father
When was the business founded and why?
Arte is a family business founded by my father, Jean-Pierre Desart, in 1981. He was always passionate about art, design and interiors and wanted to show the world how important a design element wallcoverings really are. My brother Steven and I grew up with the view that good design and decoration are important and carry those values with us today. The business has developed greatly since then and Arte wallcoverings now adorn both residential homes and project interiors in over 80 countries. We are extremely proud of the success we have achieved as a family-owned business.
How many staff?
We have 150 people, from showroom teams in London, LA, Paris and the Netherlands to designers, printers and logistics experts, each one contributing to the business as a whole.
Industry insight: Smart decision
Luke Crutcher, director at CEDIA member fi rm Living Home Tech, explains how a smart home can contribute to saving energy
AUTOMATED LIGHTING CONTROL is, perhaps, the most obvious way to save energy in the home. A ‘House Off’ scene on the control system can switch off all the lighting circuits and even some socket outlets that are part of an automated lighting control system.
On our projects, we would usually install an external light level sensor, monitoring the lux levels. This will then decide when it’s best for the passive infrared (PIR) detectors in a space to become active so they can switch external circuits on only when they detect movement – no more light wasting energy during the day. Equally, installing PIR’s within non-key areas, such as utility spaces, bathrooms and basements can switch lighting on automatically to welcome people, but only when needed.
Blind control has two main functions:
keeping light and heat out and keeping heat in. Depending on what materials are specifi ed, automated blinds set up to respond to sunlight can be a great way to keep unnecessary heat out of
big, open-plan spaces. The result will be less energy spent on air conditioning in summer. In winter months, automatically activated blinds can help retain warmth from underfl oor heating and boilers within the space, rather than losing it through the glazing. Another energy saver. We see many homes that have been installed with no control system to interlock the heating and air conditioning. This means the client could have the latter set to 20˚C cooling, while the underfl oor heating is set to 22˚C heating, keeping both systems on, fi ghting against each other and wasting signifi cant energy. Here, we would create an interlocked system to prevent this from happening.
A home’s audio-visual system can generate wasted heat, especially
in the main AV rack where amplifi ers and processors are constantly working. On our projects, we make sure that we automate specifi c equipment to turn off when not required – and when a ventilation system with heat recovery is being fi tted, we always recommend to feed heat generated by the AV rack into such a system to save energy. An up-and-coming technology to implement within the home are batteries. In the future they will offer a solution for effi ciently storing the energy generated from Solar PV, ready to use on demand. As this technology improves, the payback periods will continue to decrease. With all of these different operations, the end user will need a control system not only to operate but also to monitor each element. Every project is different and requires careful design. Make sure you work with an experienced integrator, ideally a CEDIA member, with a track record of installing energy-effi cient control system to get the best results.
cedia.co.uk livinghometech.co.uk Who inspires me…
My father is my biggest source of inspiration. I am very proud of what he has achieved and that my brother and I are able to continue his work. His modesty and perseverance are two qualities he has ingrained in us. His eye for detail taught us to strive for high quality and innovation in everything we do.
I’ve always been a fan of...
Art Deco and Art Nouveau, particularly in terms of architecture. We are based near Brussels, so are lucky to be able to see the innovative use of materials and curving forms so typical of Art Nouveau fi rst hand. You may notice references to these movements throughout our collections.
My highlight of the last 12 months... We hired an external General Manager. This was a very important decision for a family business like ours, as it allows my brother and I to solely concentrate on our areas of expertise: Steven on product design and production and me on marketing and sales.
arte-international.com
Where is Arte based? Zonhoven in Belgium. At our headquarters we hold stock ready for distribution and manufacture around half of our collections in-house using environmentally friendly processes.
What is your latest signifi cant achievement or project of note? We always have a signifi cant thing we are working on, so there are numerous on-going projects that excite me. Every season we bring innovative collections to the market and the development of these is always fascinating as well as challenging. We continually push the boundaries, working with our teams to deliver something beautiful, unique and intriguing.
What is your favourite possession?
Our archive, which dates back to the early 1980s – not only is a treasure trove of designs, spanning all our previous collections, it also includes moments of our family history. Steven and I can be seen modelling in one of the early collection books.
I’ve just discovered...
Last year I travelled to Bali with my family and the country took me by complete surprise. I was amazed by the relaxed atmosphere and lush natural beauty, as well as the arts and crafts scene there and how genuine and kind everyone was.
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