Linoleum is a natural material with quite an eventful history of use since its invention in 1864 by the British entrepreneur Frederik Walton. Its first golden age was between 1900 and 1930, when numerous renowned designers - among them Josef Hoffmann or Bruno Paul - designed both collections and patterns. Even Peter Behrens - before he became the "artistic counselor" to AEG in Berlin in 1908 - tried his hand at designing linoleum patterns, to the point of developing a complete "corporate design" from stationary to catalogs to exhibition architecture for the Anker- Linoleum-Werke at Delmenhorst. Bauhaus architects such as Bruno Taut or Mies van der Rohe used linoleum in housing projects as an inexpensive and hardwearing but also decorative floor-covering. This book is the first to present this historically and ecologically equally important material in its various guises. Experts in the field contributed essays about the history of linoleum, its "discovery" by modernist designers and architects and its renaissance in contemporary design and architecture. (German edition available ISBN 3-7757-0962-2)