WESTMONT, Ill., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- UPM ProFi, an innovative, environmentally appealing wood/plastic composite, stood the test of hundreds of stiletto heels and dozens of active children at the opening of Design Miami yesterday. The new product, primarily used as decking, has been gaining popularity in Europe as an attractive, "green" building material, and it is now being introduced to North America at the Miami show. "We couldn't have planned a tougher test," said Edward Robinson, Sales and Marketing Director for UPM ProFi. "The UPM ProFi surface was unmarked by the high volume of traffic at Design Miami. Even when beverages were spilled, no one slipped on the high-friction surface of UPM ProFi." Guests at Design Miami mingled in an artfully designed pavilion called "The Space of Silence", built entirely from UPM ProFi. The new product is manufactured from surplus materials, primarily paper and plastic, left over from the production of self-adhesive label stock by UPM Raflatac, the Label Division of UPM. The process residue is sent to UPM ProFi's production facility where it is recycled and moulded into patio decking and corner protector profiles. The pavilion is the result of a unique partnership of global forest industry leader UPM, renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and Finnish design company Artek. A trailblazer in applying ecological thinking to architectural design, Ban was inspired by UPM ProFi and sketched an exhibition space for Artek that would be built from the new wood/plastic composite. The pavilion was first presented by Artek and UPM in April at Salone Internationale del Mobile in Milan, Italy, then was reassembled for display in Helsinki, Finland. The first appearance of the pavilion in North America is at Design Miami.
