A visionary initiative years in the making, we were thrilled to officially launch Co.Lab at an intimate gathering in our Sydney showroom. The celebration brought together our most valued industry peers, friends, and members of the media, marking a bold new era in Australian timber flooring design.
Born from a vision to revolutionise the flooring industry and celebrate creativity and craftsmanship, Co.Lab brings together the world’s most esteemed designers to create extraordinary flooring collections that challenge conventions and set new standards in design.
The launch introduced our first Co.Lab collection: the Bosco Collection, a collaboration with award-winning Australian designer Greg Natale. Inspired by European modernism and mid-century tiles, Bosco merges Natale’s signature tessellating patterns with the warmth and natural beauty of solid European oak.
The event opened with a welcome address from Tegan Schwarz (General Manager Marketing), and featured the screening of a short film about the Bosco Collection. Richard Karsay (CEO) and Greg Natale then took part in an engaging conversation, sharing their journey in bringing the collection to life.
Having discussed the possibility of collaborating on a range of timber flooring for almost a decade, they shared their vision and inspiration behind the collection and explained the challenges they overcame to bring these complex designs to life in three-layers of solid European oak.
A son of Italian immigrant parents, Greg explained his deep connection to Italy, his admiration of its art and architectural heritage – Bosco’s five patterns are named after famous architects and artists from the region – and his long-standing dream to bring these incredible designs, traditionally used exclusively in stone and tile, to timber.
Richard shared the role that years of rigorous R&D and investments into cutting-edge manufacturing technology played in taking these designs from concept to reality, and in bringing them to market while retaining Tongue & Groove’s three-layer solid European oak structure and best-in-class precision engineering.
We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who joined us and helped make the event a tremendous success. Your support and enthusiasm mean the world to us, and it was a pleasure to share this milestone with friends, old and new.
A special mention to Greg Natale and his team; Est’s Miffy Coady; Belle’s Tanya Buchanan; Raj Nandan and the Indesign team; and our dearest friends—Maria Papantoniou, Claire Del Mar, Jonno Flemming, and Sonia and Georgia from Woods & Warner.
Co.Lab is a pioneering initiative from Tongue & Groove that combines the brand’s precision engineering with the groundbreaking creativity of the world’s most celebrated and visionary designers to create extraordinary flooring collections.