Media informationmafi : walk on art

mafi stands for as much natural as innovative natural wooden floors. The family business from Schneegattern, Upper Austria sees itself as a trendsetter in the wooden flooring industry and proves this time and again with its constantly expanding product range. Architects, designers and socialites worldwide trust the understanding of design as well as the quality of mafi's natural wooden floors.

Almost 100 years’ experience in processing wood

The raw material wood has accompanied the Fillafer family since the end of the First World War. At that time, a sawmill was run in the grounds of a house in Schneegattern, Upper Austria. The largest, contiguous woodland in Central Europe, the Kobernaußerwald Forrest formed the perfect starting point for this. The family took the first steps in the design direction with the production of wooden ceilings and joists and the unique, hand-carved decoration thereof. Over the years, the family owned enterprise perfected the processing and the integration of wood into man's living space. In 1992, Fritz Fillafer's focus wandered from the ceiling to the floor, the basis of living space. Since then, the family produces both traditional and innovative natural wooden floors under the name mafi. With the existing infrastructure and the know-how collected over decades, the foundation was laid for a lasting success.

Nature as the designer

Sustainability and resource efficiency are part of the mafi philosophy and permeate through all company areas. So, mafi obtains its wood almost exclusively from Central Europe and only from carefully managed forests if possible. Herein, mafi uses the entire tree. Every tree, however, is unique, and any plank thereof is one of a kind. No floor is therefore like any other, nothing is produced on stock. The customer receives his own work of art made specifically for him - mafi: walk on art. Varying widths and lengths or even single product lines reflect this basic philosophy. Any resulting waste wood is used in the internal pellet production.

mafi natural wooden floors was the first company in the industry, which declined to use any form of paint or chemical additives in the production of wood floorings. mafi’s special oils penetrate deeply into the top layer of the wood flooring, cure and thus make the wood resistant from the inside out, without forming a film layer. Both the oils and and the soaps used consist of purely natural substances. The individual layers of the boards are glued together with pva glue from water, carbon, lime and acetic acid. The sustainable philosophy, together with the natural handling of the resource which is wood earned mafi the Energy Globe Award in 2011 for the earth category.

The mafi Vulcano flooring offers a real and most importantly, sustainable alternative to tropical wood floors. Through a complex thermo treatment, the wood obtains a dark colour with warm brown tones. During this thermo treatment, no chemical additives are used. With this method, only heat, wind and water are used and this reduces swelling, shrinkage and internal stresses.

Never normal, but unique - mafi as the Trendsetter

Every year, next to "traditional wooden floors" new technologies and designs are developed, many of which are already proven as pioneers in the international market. In this way, natural knots and cracks are not negated, but rather through coloured puttys celebrated. Hand planed cracks or the individual colours of the cracks are only the tip of the tradecraft iceberg.

The 3-D surfaces of the mafi Fresco Edition are especially enjoyable barefoot. The raised upper layer performs a slight but nonetheless unforgettable massage effect. 2009 brought with it an honourable mention in the Red Dot Design award for the mafi Fresco Duna, oiled in white, in the Interior Design category.

Especially unique are also the Carving Edition patterns which through the designs across several planks give a larger surface appearance. The long standing Paisley design is having a revival thanks to this, just as what used to be rough sound of the Seattle music scene inspired Grunge optic is. 2012 mafi gain the red dot design award: best of the best for its Carving Club I. With its high design language and quality this unique natural wooden floor could inspire the experts and was able to assert more than 4500 designs. With the mafi Domino, the assortment is rounded off through this enormously robust cross grain wooden floor, especially for public places.

International success

With 20 employees in organisation and about 80 employees in production, mafi celebrates international success. Apart from Europe, people live and work on mafi natural wooden floors in the USA, Japan, UAE, Australia and Mexico. Altogether, mafi exports to approx. 40 countries on this Earth. Socialites like Claudia Schiffer and Giorgio Armani count themselves as customers just as much as Star Architect Norman Foster. An outstanding project is the Cathedral Basílica de Zacatecas in Mexico which was equipped extensively with mafi natural wooden as well as the high luxurious Yachts of an Italian Yacht-Manufacturer. Recently the Melbourne International Airport and the Revel Casino in Atlantic City were realized.