North American Design Keynote Premiere - Els Zijlstra

Material Skills: the Future of Intelligent Materials: In her IIDEX/NeoCon debut, Els Zijlstra, Director of Materia, will examine key developments that have shaped the evolution of materials and will set a vision of what is to come. Stronger, lighter, sustainable, inspiring and surprising – those are just a few of the qualities associated with the latest architectural materials. Since 1998, Materia has been collecting, recording and analyzing information about the material needs of interior designers and architects. Whether the perfect material for a project is a newly engineered alloy or something as organic as abalone shells set in a matrix of chestnut lacquer, Materia has information about its sensory and technical properties.

Members of the media are also encouraged to contact our public relations firm, Parallel Communications via email at or by calling 416-849-9083 to receive additional show information and to arrange press interviews.