Kvadrat champions circular design in AW21 launches

Kvadrat is known for producing quality contemporary textiles and textile related products for architects, designers and private consumers across the world, continuously rethinking and offering solutions for a more positive environmental impact. Currently only 25% of the 95% of global textiles that can be recycled actually are. In response to this urgent global issue of waste, Kvadrat introduces new collections and brands to take action in the textile industry to help combat climate change and its impacts. 

NEW: SABI 

Designed by Louise Sigvardt for Kvadrat 

Sabi is a multidimensional woollen upholstery textile, which explores layers and bright colour paradigms. Designed by Louise Sigvardt, a fashion design graduate from Kolding Design School in Denmark, it is crafted, in part, with recycled wool from the yarn spinner Wooltex in the United Kingdom.

One of the coloured yarns for Sabi are made of virgin wool, while the other is recycled wool dyed in darker tones. This approach ensures the textile’s dynamic colour palette, which features a classic dobby weave construction. The recycled wool used to create Sabi comes from re-using scraps that otherwise would have been waste material. It is the same raw material used for the Re-wool by Margrethe Odgaard. However, the composition and the colour expression of the two textiles are different. 

Mirroring this, the meeting point between past and present is the starting point for Sabi’s dynamic palette. It blends contemporary colours with notes from the 1970s and 1980s, balancing sharp, powerful colours with pure, toned-down neutral tones. The primary colour inspirations for the design are Mellow Butter, Acid Green, Camel Brown, Sour Lavender, and Prima Magenta.

NEW: MIZMAZE 

Designed by Sylvain Willenz for Kvadrat Febrik

Mizmaze is a knitted upholstery textile with a graphic expression, which is designed by Brussels-based Sylvain Willenz. It is the product of a manufacturing process, which significantly reduces the use of water. Like all double-knitted upholsteries from Kvadrat Febrik, Mizmaze offers a soft, padded volume and excellent elasticity. It unites a top woollen layer with a polyester backing. This construction is necessary to achieve the desired volume. The textile derives its excellent longevity, durability, and abrasion resistance from blending polyamide with the wool. 

Kvadrat Febrik has adopted a manufacturing process focusing on reducing our water usage. In the development of Mizmaze, the focus was to meet our ambition to continuously optimise our processes and push innovation within our resource utilisation. By substituting the conventional washing with a soaking-only process, the water usage is reduced by 80-95%. This technique is scalable and is to be explored across future developments. 

NEW: HAKU 

Designed by Teruhiro Yanagihara for Kvadrat 

Designed by Japanese-born designer Teruhiro Yanagihara, Haku, the first Kvadrat design to feature a silicone-coated polyurethane top layer, offers the healthcare and hospitality sectors a durable, wipeable, waterproof textile with an elegant aesthetic and a sustainable profile. Unlike conventional coated textiles, Haku has an intricate grain and a soft, luxurious hand. REACH, and Cal prop 65 compliant, as well as PFC- and PVC-free, it comes in 28 shades, inspired by the poems in Japan’s oldest poetry book, “Manyōshū”, which rely on traditional Japanese colours to express the spirits of the seasons. 

REALLY 

Really is a subsidiary of Kvadrat responding to the urgent global issue of textile waste. It upcycles end-of-life textiles to create materials that challenge the design and architecture industries to rethink their use of resources and to design with a circular economy in mind.

As a champion of circular design, Really encourages innovative concepts that prolong the lifespan of textile resources by taking readily available waste stream of fibres, both end-of-life and production waste textiles, and redefines its use, transforming it into a new raw material. The Solid Textile Board and Acoustic Textile Felt by Really are high-quality engineered board and felts made from end-of-life cotton and wool sourced from the fashion and textiles industries and households. The manufacturing process in Denmark does not involve the use of dyes, water or toxic chemicals and generates only recyclable waste. The material used can eventually be re-granulated and formed into new boards. 

To celebrate the launch of Solid Textile Board Melamine, Really collaborated recently with architect and designer, Anne Boysen to create the Really Module, a modular display unit made entirely out of Solid Textile Board Melamine. The modular design offers endless configurations for a range of uses, aligning perfectly with Really’s mission of circularity. With built-in drawers and shelving, the modules can be used for storage, for display or simply as a tabletop.

BRAID 

Designed by Karin An Rijlaarsdam for Kvadrat 

Featuring the delicate, organic irregularities reminiscent of natural surfaces, Braid is made from 88% recycled post-consumer polyester. Designed by Karin An Rijlaarsdam, the rug is inspired by braiding techniques, crafts and the landscapes of Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, where she is based, and is focused on creating a positive environmental impact. It is the first design in the Kvadrat rug collection that includes recycled polyester.

The making of Braid results in minimal production waste due to its stitching technique. Available in eight colourways and rectangle and circle options, Braid is made from braided ropes, one thick, one thin. The slimmer rope is stitched in a wavy curve on the thick ropes, offering a beautiful irregularity to the design. It is then arranged as a spiral for the round rugs, or in rows for the rectangular design, before being stitched into place. To finish, a separate fine rope is sewn around the rug and the border is refined with a 10 cm wrapping detail on the lower right edge or corner, giving it a strong and durable feel.

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