Inside the Landmark Belgotex x Hoven Installation at Decorex Africa

In a world where trade stands are often static and transactional, one installation at Decorex Africa broke the mold — boldly, texturally, and with undeniable emotional resonance.

Belgotex, one of Africa’s leading flooring brands, teamed up with designer Nisha van der Hoven (@hovendesign) to unveil a sculpted textile terrain that redefined the boundaries of what a design stand can be. What emerged wasn’t just a visually arresting display, but a walkable, immersive landscape that connected materiality to memory and product to place.

From a dramatic 60-metre wave of suspended carpet to an undulating floorscape inspired by the topography of Pietermaritzburg — home to the Belgotex factory — the installation offered more than spectacle. It invited touch, evoked emotion, and told a layered story of origin, process, and craft.

We chatted to the full creative team behind this exceptional installation — designer Nisha van der Hoven, collaboration curator Lauren Lockhart-Barker of Forgotten Flexible, and Belgotex’s Mel Dwyer (Head of Brand and Growth) and Sasha Sebastian (Head of Marketing )— to unpack the creative thinking, philosophy, and future direction behind this landmark design moment.

Left to Right: Sasha Sebastian, Lauren Lockhart-Barker,Nisha and Justus van der Hoven

Designer Nisha van der Hoven (@hovendesign)

What inspired your approach to form, layering, and flow within the space?
Floorscape inspiration:
As a visual expression of the Traceability concept, the exhibit takes on the form of a walkable sculpture — an immersive landscape crafted entirely from flooring materials. The design emerged from a series of conceptual watercolour sketches, composed from colours and textures found in the Belgotex product library. Visitors traverse the space between three contoured hills, each with their own unique colour palette.
How does this project expand or evolve your design philosophy?
Sensory and narrative spaces:
This exhibit is a sensory experience — a ‘tufted terrain’ that invites visitors to engage through movement, texture, and touch. Each material layer is imagined as a ‘geological layer’, mapping the journey of design from abstract concept to sculpted contour. It represents the landscape in an experiential sense — hills of plush broadloom rise and fall alongside vinyl ‘riverbeds’ that meander through the installation, guiding visitors along a sensory path. Together, these layered elements create a richly textured landscape underfoot — where every step becomes part of the narrative.
The idea of “traceability” underpins the design. What does traceability mean to you as a brand/designer, and how is that expressed through the sculpted floorscape?
Traceability is the practice of investigating, tracking, and documenting the journey of a design product — from its origin to its final application. By illuminating the provenance of Belgotex products, we aim to enhance quality control and preserve design integrity, ensuring that every decision, revision, and influence can be traced back to its source.
As designers, we believe that traceability holds particular resonance for Belgotex. It speaks not only to the visible surface, but to the deeper narrative of origin, transformation, and the considered choices that shape the product’s evolution from start to finish.
The installation references the origin of the Belgotex factory in Pietermaritzburg and its surrounding landscape. Can you walk us through how this geography informed the design language and material selection?
For this exhibit, it was essential to present Belgotex as a proudly South African manufacturer — one that crafts its flooring entirely in-house, from the production of individual yarns to the final tufted carpet. In an era where local industries are under immense strain from both imported competition and the challenges of deteriorating infrastructure, we sought to underscore the value and importance of supporting high-quality, locally produced goods.
The exhibit’s forms and contours are a deliberate homage to the surrounding landscape and topography of Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal — the home of the Belgotex factory. It is from this historic setting that the company’s story began: a modest vision that, over the course of four decades, has evolved into one of Africa’s leading flooring brands.

Lauren Lockhart-Barker — Forgotten Flexible (handles Belgotex Collaborations with designers)

This project began with the idea of storytelling through flooring. How did the collaboration between Belgotex and Hoven come about, and what aligned your vision so well?
The collaboration on the Traceability stand at Decorex began as a conversation within a much larger collaboration project currently taking place between Belgotex and Hoven. A tufted tile product design collaboration between the two brands was initiated earlier this year and will continue through the design development phase over the coming months.
With Belgotex ambitiously taking on the challenge of creating two stands at Decorex this year, we needed two different but compelling exhibition experiences. I conceptualised one stand as conceptual — alluding to what’s next — and the other as rooted in the ‘now’, showcasing Belgotex’s current vinyl and carpet product range.
With Hoven’s immense talent for creating beautiful, layered designs, we asked them to create a stand that was fundamentally experiential — enabling visitors to explore and engage with a variety of flooring products in a playful, tactile way. Hoven more than delivered, as anyone who visited the stand can attest.
The installation references the origin of the Belgotex factory in Pietermaritzburg and its surrounding landscape. Can you walk us through how this geography informed the design language and material selection?
A strong focus for both the collaborations and the Decorex project was to highlight that Belgotex is a local manufacturer — uniquely producing flooring from start to finish, from yarn to tufted carpet.
In a country where manufacturing industries face intense pressure and even threats of closure, we aim to show the potential and importance of supporting locally made products.
Pairing local design talent with local manufacturing expertise is sure to create incredible products — and build momentum in both the design and manufacturing industries, where it is sorely needed.
This feels like the beginning of a broader design conversation. What’s next for Belgotex and Hoven — either together or individually — following this creative milestone?
This is indeed the start of an exciting product collaboration between Belgotex and Hoven. It forms part of a broader collaborations project I’m curating, involving five South African designers and the brands Belgotex and YUDU.
Hoven will begin developing a commercial tufted carpet tile design with Belgotex over the coming months. We’re looking forward to turning the ideas currently on the table into designs rooted in a strong sense of place and narrative. Keep an eye out for what’s to come!

Belgotex — Mel Dwyer (Head of Brand and Growth) & Sasha Sebastian (Head of Marketing)

Do you see this kind of narrative-driven design becoming more central in how brands approach physical spaces and product presentation?
Absolutely. In a digital-heavy world, physical spaces must work harder to connect. Narrative-led design creates memorable experiences — it’s not just about displaying a product but telling a story that customers can step into.
This kind of storytelling bridges the gap between brand and audience, making values like sustainability, innovation, and design come alive in a way that’s felt, not just seen.
Belgotex is known for innovation in sustainable materials and high-performance flooring. How do installations like this push the boundaries of what people expect from flooring?
Flooring is often overlooked for the impact it can have within a space. This installation challenged its conventional role as purely practical, revealing how it can also be expressive in shaping both space and emotion.
It invited designers and specifiers to see flooring not just as a surface, but as a powerful medium for spatial storytelling.
What role do storytelling and emotional connection play in Belgotex’s approach to product design and branding today?
Storytelling is central to how we design, communicate, and innovate. At Belgotex, we don’t just launch products — we share the ideas, values, and purpose behind them.
Emotional connection is what turns a good design into a meaningful one. Whether it’s through colour palettes inspired by nature or textures that connect people to place, we’re constantly looking for ways to build deeper resonance between our products and the spaces they inhabit.

An extraordinary installation like this doesn’t come around often. Even after years of attending design fairs across the globe, few experiences have matched the innovative spirit and masterful craftsmanship showcased by Belgotex and Nisha van der Hoven at Decorex Africa. This installation isn’t just a display—it’s a powerful statement of creativity, local pride, and narrative design that resonates deeply. Our respect and admiration go out to the entire team behind this groundbreaking work. It’s a shining example of how flooring and textile design can transcend expectations and inspire on a global stage.