Ground History

Today, someone who wants to change their upholstery has to choose from a lot of options at the end of their fingers. However, this was not always the case.

In the first houses in history's dusty pages, and even still in some parts of the world, the floor material was made by compressing parts of nature's floor. These parts were not expensive, and generally formed by soil, straw and dung. People share their homes with animals and their dungs were then pressed on and joined the ground.

Sand was usually splattered on the ground and when the ground was too dirty, the dirt on the ground would be swept along with the sand. Colorful sand, rice, and flower ornaments to welcome visitors, or to commemorate some of the important events called decorative ‘rangoli’ (floor painting) art, emerged in India in this way.

About 5,000 years ago, Egyptians developed stone construction. This was the birth of stone and brick flooring. Later, small colored ceramics (known as mosaics) appeared to add a pattern and aesthetic appearance to the floor. The Roman Empire, on the other hand, saw that the fire burning in the small basement under the stone floor heated the stones above and witnessed the first floor heating system.

Although ceramic tiles emerged for the first time in Turkey and the Middle East in the 1600's, their popularity in Europe began to increase only in the 1800s.

The oldest known wooden floors have been used in the Middle Ages. First, they were hard wooden planks that were fixed with stone or metal. Varnish and lacqquer were added later to improve product durability and add pattern.

Documents show that carpets have been in human life for 4000 years, carpet construction in China started 1000 years ago. Iran (former Persian Empire) developed the art of carpet weaving in the 1600's. The patterns in these “Persian carpets”are still very popular and quite expensive.

The rubber upholstery were introduced in the 1200's, and the popularity of this flooring was then enhanced by the development of vinyl, where oil was used to paint the leather. Vinyl, synthetic tires and wire insulation has been in many areas of use. The use of vinyl as flooring coincides with the period after World War II.

Living spaces from mudbrick houses to residences have continued to evolve throughout history, and floors like every other element of a structure have become part of this endless wheel of evolution so that there are dozens of choices we use today.

Now we invite you to imagine everything that humans can develop, even those who seem to be most impossible, when these days will take place in the pages of history. What do you see on the ground of the future?

Painting: Gustave Caillebotte - The Floor Scrapers