Sundoor at Batimat 2019, 4 to 8 November

What a trade show reveals about the questions nobody asks

Across five days at Batimat, the same remark kept coming back from trade visitors: nobody had thought about the door. We heat through the floor, the walls, the ceiling, we insulate everything around the room, and we leave a large vertical surface doing nothing but closing a cupboard.

Why that surface is unusually well placed

A wardrobe door is vertical, flat, often wide, and it faces the room. It also stands away from the occupants, which allows radiation at low temperature rather than a hot spot. And it takes up no space at all, because it is already there.

The 2019 gold innovation trophy

It was OPTIMUM, a manufacturer of wardrobe doors, that received the Innovation trophy awarded by INOHA in November 2019, for this product which Ceilingo helped design. Of nearly thirty entries considered, seven were rewarded.

How the product works is set out on the Sundoor presentation page, and the full sheet on the Sundoor, the heated wardrobe page.

What visitors asked most often

Three questions kept coming. Whether the door still handles normally, with the track and the guides unchanged. Whether the front face can take any finish, mirror included. And how a sliding door is supplied with power, which is the real technical difficulty of the product.

A category that did not exist

INOHA brings together manufacturers in DIY, gardening and home improvement. A product that heats, shown by a joinery maker, fitted into none of the show's boxes. That is probably what caught the jury's attention as much as the performance itself.