It is the element around which the domestic atmosphere is concentrated. It encloses intimacy, speaks of the home and its inhabitants, telling the story of their habits and tastes, and it delimits the boundaries of personal space. The carpet as a typology expresses itself in a loose and casual language, one that is often bold. It provokes and entertains. Its design has taken flight towards rich and varied aesthetic experimentation, with materials that remain the heart and soul of functional research.
New geometries form unusual designs, irregular contours, to create optical illusions that distort the perception of the image. Sottosopra2, Limited Edition collection, fascinates and impresses with the inverted play of perspectives created by Fabio Novembre for Illulian, handcrafted by expert craftsmen in Himalayan wool, pure silk and natural dyes from plants. Also Mirage, designed by Patricia Urquiola for GAN, simulates an intertwining that is not there, an effect amplified by its irregular shape and by the three different chromatic variations – blue, orange and nude – expressed in ten shades of colour for each model. Each is unique and unrepeatable, because each one is produced entirely in an artisanal way in New Zealand wool that is recyclable, biodegradable, hypoallergenic and easy to wash.
Maarten Baas, on the other hand, has drawn actual furnishings seen from above on the surface, indeed as if they were ‘crushed’, giving life to Flatter, from the NODUSHandtufted collection, hand-tufted in India in wool and zari. While JMFerrero, for the Marquis outdoor rug for Vondom in UV-resistant polyester fibre, was inspired by the cut of diamonds, with different facets to create visual dynamism in 3D. Movement becomes a constant factor of the most recent creations and it often arises from the complicity between geometry and colour, as in the Garden of Eden family of carpets by Golran, designed by India Mahdavi under the artistic direction of Francesca Avossa, inspired by Persian gardens.
Sometimes, the brio is instead suggested by the architecture, escaping the rigidity of classic rectangular shapes: Federico Pepe knows this well, since in Asmara, manufactured by cc-tapis in cotton and Himalayan wool, he pays homage to the capital of Eritrea, world heritage of Unesco, and its modernist architecture. Appearing more frequently and forcefully is a personalisation that is increasingly close to being ‘tailor made’, with a variety of sartorial proportions. Customisable up to 4m in width and available in two standard versions (small 190×200 cm and large 380×400 cm) is UltraNative, the collection by Deanna Comellini with the format registered exclusively for G.T. Design that evokes archaic patterns. Three sizes -170×240, 200×300, 300×400 – and four colour palettes for Shade, created and manufactured by Nanimarquina to furnish and create comfort in the absence of specific walls or points of reference (external).
Instead, it is the ‘fabric’ that characterises Ebanys, an unusual indoor carpet created by Paola Lenti together with Listone Giordano joining large square modules in thermoformed material, covered with a thin but strong layer of inlaid wood and finished manually in ‘matte’. So original that it can also be placed on the wall. As can the elegant and fané, Jay, Taj Mahal Collection by Sahrai, in wool and silk. The outdoors doesn’t intend upon renouncing domestic suggestions and it does so through highly resistant materials. For the Patio rugs, JAB uses a coloured polyester fibre made entirely from recycled plastic bottles, PET, which, hand-woven, has a visual and tactile rendering of absolute softness. Synthetic yarn and warp also for Triptyque by Roda: three identical portions punctuated by the alternation of the motif that evokes the sartorial hem. Made
