An innovation story

Published on 27-06-2022     |     Innovation

Innovation can be defined as the process through which you implement something new that adds value. It's essential to keep up to date with the latest trends and seek customer satisfaction to achieve this goal. Kriskadecor, with its almost 100 years of history, is an excellent example of how innovation has played a vital role in defining its past, present, and future.

Our innovation story begins in 1926 in Montblanc, a former ducal town in the province of Tarragona (Spain) with an ancient city center that has been declared a historic-artistic site.

At that time, Josep Maria Sans Amill, the founder of the company, who was studying in Barcelona, bet with his colleagues that he could create a machine to join chain links automatically. Around the same time, the owner of a nearby bakery explained to him that, during the summer, when he left the door open to ventilate, the place was full of flies. As a result of these two events, he thought of developing the first iron curtains for doors, with the chief purpose of preventing flies and insects from entering.

The rest is history. Gradually, word spread, and chain curtains became commonly used in commercial premises and private homes all over the Mediterranean.

Decades later, his son Josep Maria Sans Folch designed the new chain links after painstakingly researching raw materials. He improved the technique for working with anodized aluminum, which enabled him to add a wide range of colors. His wife, Josefina Esplugas, was vital throughout this development.

At the turn of the century, after numerous adaptations, performance improvements, and intensive research and development work by the innovation department, aluminium chains left private homes and shops to feature in world-wide great hotels and buildings. If we think about the evolution into a decorative product, one of the first projects was Casa Camper in Barcelona, a hotel designed by Fernando Amat, a merchant and promoter of Catalan design.

After this project, many others followed. Brands such as Google, Martini, Kawasaki, and Marriott have trusted us to transform their projects. So have architects and designers of the stature of Philippe Starck, Patricia Urquiola, and Kengo Kuma, with whom we collaborated in the recent architectural intervention at Gaudí's Casa Batlló.

Today, the third generation of the Sans family leads the company, continuing the family's trail of innovation, even developing a subdivision of outdoor cladding with aluminum chains. Josep Maria and Maties keep in mind what their grandfather used to say: "There is nothing that can't be done; you just have to find a way".