One of the reasons that I consistently block out at least a day to just explore a trade show floor is so I can stumble across some new names and new concepts that I might otherwise have never discovered. Scheduled meetings are great for developing and nurturing those known relationships. But the experience I had with the team at Solyt is the exact type of interaction that wouldn’t have been possible if that “open time” wasn’t available.
And what a hidden gem they turned out to be.
This International Builders’ Show was the first event in the U.S. market for the brand. Launched by a Canadian building solutions distributor Canbec (which itself was only founded in 2018), Solyt bills itself as a “surface technology brand” that specializes in “advanced PHOMI innovations.”
PHOMI, as I’ve come to learn, is a company that developed and patented a cladding material made of modified clay. Think of it like a layer of skin to a building. It’s meant to be an eco-friendly, flexible material that can mimic the natural and rough texture of stone, marble, or granite, but is much thinner, lighter, and durable, with a stated lifespan of around 50 years.
Using the “econiclay” material, as they call it, Solyt has been able to produce some truly incredible and downright innovative products that can ultimately reshape residential and commercial spaces.
What drew me into their booth was the architectural eDisplay panels that effectively looked like projection screens on the side of a stone wall—without the projector, of course. What the Solyt team explained is that, with the material being so thin and lightweight, they were able to emit light from behind the surface, creating an HD display that’s embedded directly into the architectural material.
Immediately, commercial applications come to mind. With peak brightness reaching up to 2,000 nits, the display would work just fine as an exterior, high-impact digital signage piece, capable of extending visitor dwell time while creating unique revenue opportunities for a business. Indoors, the display could serve as in-store signage and customer education centers, among myriad other potential applications.
As if the TV rock wall wasn’t enough, Solyt also showcased a solar façade that can convert a rather innocuously looking wall into an energy-producing architectural surface. With the successful launch of their eDisplay panels, which emit light, the brand decided to test out the reverse theory—collect light (or sunrays) and convert it into energy. Using the same exact econiclay technology, Solyt embeds photovoltaic cells into the customized finishes and mounts them on lightweight honeycomb panels to create a clean energy producing system that would otherwise resemble a typical stone, wood, brick or mineral texture wall.
Effectively, every home or commercial building immediately becomes a candidate for these Solyt solar panels, greatly increasing the structure’s ability to produce energy on every surface—the roof or vertical walls. And, of course, there’s no worrying about those unsightly glass panels sticking out like a sore thumb.
The panels don’t just look better—they also are better for the environment (they deliver up to 58 percent lower carbon emissions per watt, according to Solyt), and with wider distribution throughout the home or structure, they can produce greater amounts of solar energy for the end user.
