During Paris Design Week, the Mouvement Modernes Gallery showcases a joint rug showcase created by the textile studio Creative Matters together with the architectural practice RDAI. RDAI’s Paris team turns to the natural world for inspiration. Employing three-dimensional and parametric software, they examined minute and detailed life forms such as spiders, butterflies and coral, seeking to decode the concealed geometries of nature.
Having generated digital models of spider silk, butterfly wing surfaces and coral formations, the architects sent the simplified visuals to their long-standing partners, Creative Matters of Toronto. That studio then teamed with a group of expert weavers in Nepal to convert those organic motifs into textile installations.
Geometric Patterns in Wool and Silk
Constructed from wool sourced in the Himalayas, the carpets feature accents, dots and either raised or recessed lines, woven in Chinese silk. According to RDAI architect Johan Thuillot, who guided OnOffice through the gallery at the collection’s debut, the patterns are meant to manipulate visual perspective.
“With the butterfly rug, we wanted to play with perspective and express the idea of iridescence,” he explains, noting that butterfly wings consist of myriad overlapping scales. Those scales both reflect and bend light, a quality rendered here as a gradient and radiating design.
A second butterfly piece captures the sweeping curvature of a wing. The spider-themed rugs are offered in two versions, one evoking the sparkle of dew droplets caught in a web, the other echoing the fine architecture of Madagascar’s tangle-web spiders; in each case, luminous silk subtly rises from the deep, uncolored wool base.
“All these animals have this geometric aspect,” Thuillot states. “So we just had to dig into it and try to identify how to turn it into a workable design.”
Clémence Hardelay, Creative Matters’ European design director, notes that the hand-crafted process leaves minute flaws, which actually enhance the rugs’ appeal.
“We started with an image where the circles were perfect, and the lines were perfect. But because the rugs are handwoven, you can really feel and see the craftsmanship.”
“I thought it was really fun to have a little bit more freedom in colour and design,” adds Hardelay.
