Kvadrat unveils #coloureffects during Milan Design Week 2024
April 8, 2024
For this year’s Salone del Mobile, Kvadrat invites to #coloureffects – a special installation by Margrethe Odgaard. #coloureffects is the designer’s own colour-setting method that aims to deepen our understanding of the sensory and emotional effects of colour, offering new perspectives. This installation will showcase Kvadrat’s newest textiles, including Re-wool 2 and Azure Outdoor by Margrethe Odgaard, alongside Serpentine by Giulio Ridolfo and rugs by Ronan Bouroullec and Jos Klarenbeek.
All of us experience colours differently. The #coloureffects method uses two decks of cards split into white action cards and black emotion cards. They each contain either sensory or emotional words that prompts you to distinguish between colour action and emotion. The #coloureffects installation consists of a series of colour monuments placed around the showroom, each presenting a colour element standing on a pedestal with embroidered text of sensory and emotional effects such as ‘I feel optimistic’ or ‘I feel curious’. Originally created for architects and designers, Odgaard used the #coloureffects method to design the installation for the Kvadrat showroom.
The textiles launching during Salone del Mobile embodies Kvadrat’s commitment to sustainability, craftmanship and creativity. Margrethe Odgaard’s Re-wool 2 introduces 14 new hues, adding to the original Re-wool colour palette, while Azure Outdoor’s draws inspiration from changing sky lights, offering a poetic colour palette for outdoor settings. Serpentine by Giulio Ridolfo reflects Kvadrat’s heritage with dynamic colour interactions, inspired by the designer’s life in Italy and travels to Mexico. Today and Tonight curtain textiles provide practical options for interior design, crafted from recycled polyester. The Corde Collection rugs by Ronan Bouroullec and Echo by Jos Klarenbeek, offer innovative designs balancing structure and pattern. The Yield Collection presents handwoven rugs with subtle irregularities.
Re-wool 2 by Margrethe Odgaard
Re-wool 2 is an upholstery textile designed by Margrethe Odgaard woven with 45% recycled wool. It comes in 14 new hues, adding to the original Re-wool colour palette, which now offers a total of 25 colourways.
The recycled woollen yarn used in the warp is spun from post-industrial fibre scraps collected from Kvadrat’s own production of woollen textiles at Wooltex weaving mill. Closing this loop within our own production ensures that the recycled wool is of the same high quality in every batch and reduces our wool fibre waste to almost zero.
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Azure Outdoor by Margrethe Odgaard
Azure Outdoor is an outdoor upholstery textile constructed with 90% recycled polyester with a water-repellent treatment free from PFAS. Designed by Margrethe Odgaard, it comes in 13 colourways informed by changing light in the sky.
Azure Outdoor features a poetic colour palette, designed to give a sensation of light and colour to the natural and architectural elements that typically populate outdoor settings, rather than overpower them. The whole collection features a shadow grey warp yarn, while the colours of the weft yarns comprise both cold and warm neutrals and reddish notes, which harmonise with materials like clay, brick, and concrete, as well as a soft blues and sun-bleached yellows.
Serpentine by Giulio Ridolfo
Serpentine is a voluminous woollen upholstery, designed by colour master Giulio Ridolfo, which reflects the material heritage of Kvadrat with a contemporary twist. Its construction combines classic craftsmanship with modern techniques to create dynamic colour interactions and a distinctive tactility.
The textile derives its softness and volume from the thick, pure woollen yarn used in the weft, specially developed by Innvik, Kvadrat’s weaving mill in Norway. It is woven with a single colour of this thick yarn, alongside two colours of a finer yarn in the warp, using a unique construction that imitates a traditional double Ikat weave on an industrial scale.
Today and Tonight by Kvadrat residential
Today is an uncomplicated, versatile curtain with a soft and stable touch. It is a semi-transparent plain weave curtain textile with
a light and gentle character. The curtain can be hung vertically and horizontally and is reversible, as each side has a unique appearance. One side has a subtle lustrous shimmer, created by a calender finish that gives a smooth and silky glazed surface. The other side remains matte and crisp, like cotton.
Kvadrat rugs
Corde Droit and Corde Chevron by Ronan Bouroullec
The Corde Collection is the latest expression of the acclaimed long-term collaboration between Ronan Bouroullec and Kvadrat. It consists of two artistic, yet utilitarian woollen rugs inspired by the allure of hand-written lines and the intricate art of rope construction: Corde and Corde Droit
Echo by Jos Klarenbeek
Echo is a handwoven flat weave rug that balances structure and pattern in a rhythmic ‘echo’. It is designed by Jos Klarenbeek and is made exclusively from regenerative pure New Zealand wool.
Yield collection
The Yield Collection consists of three handwoven rugs named Yield, Yield Dot and Yield Melange, made from regenerative pure new wool. They share the same handwoven basket weave construction, subtle yarn irregularities, and a sophisticated colour system that uses wool’s natural hues as its foundation
NOTES TO THE EDITORS
PRESS PREVIEW
Monday 15th April
From 10am to 6pm
Kvadrat Showroom, Corso Monforte 15
About Margrethe Odgaard
Margrethe Odgaard is a Danish textile and colour designer dedicated to exploring the sensory and emotional effects of colour. Her work is grounded in the belief that colour perception is a holistic, sensory experience, and she is committed to creating products that not only please the eye but also nurture the body and mind, fostering a positive impact on the observer.
Since establishing her design studio in 2013, Margrethe dedicates her time equally to an artistic practice rooted in self-initiated research, and to engaging in commercial design collaborations with leading industry brands that bring the research to life. Margrethe has showcased her work in solo exhibitions at prestigious venues including Röhsska Museum (Sweden), Designmuseo Helsinki (Finland), Willumsen’s Museum (Denmark) and Munkeruphus (Denmark). She has also authored “Shades of Light,” a meticulously curated book featuring
276 colours developed specifically for the unique Nordic light.
She has been honoured with various prizes and awards, including the prestigious Torsten & Wanja Söderberg Prize in 2016 and most recently, The Art, Design, and Architecture Prize from the Einar Hansen og Hustru fru Vera Hansens Fond in 2023.
About Giulio Ridolfo
Designer Giulio Ridolfo uses colour to contextualise design and storytelling; his approach is rooted in observation, materiality, and imagination. To create his signature ‘in-between’ mercurial hues,
he assumes many different roles, from self-taught botanist capturing the mutable colours of nature to a rogue anthropologist.
At Kvadrat, Giulio Ridolfo brings a warm, southern sensibility to the
cool clarity of Nordic design. His role is not only to propose colours, but also to go deep into the design and manufacturing process, understanding and changing the way colour is embedded in textiles through yarn structure.
Giulio Ridolfo’s colour creations are born from the poetic vision and continuous iterations that enable him to capture colour atmospheres in textiles. They draw on a legacy of celebrated collaborations with leading fashion and interior brands spanning many years.
About Ronan Bouroullec
Ronan Bouroullec is a globally acclaimed talent and long-term collaborator with Kvadrat. Trained in contemporary art and design, he creates works that span from craftsmanship to mass production via permanent public space installations worldwide.
In the early 1990s Ronan Bouroullec started his design activities and has since then worked with a roster of leading design brands from his studio in Paris. Drawing, a regular activity since childhood, also plays a central part in his life. His designs, some of which he co-creates with his brother Erwan Bouroullec, and intuitive drawings play a role in prestigious international institutions and galleries.
About Jos Klarenbeek
Jos Klarenbeek is an independent designer and researcher whose work explores the intersection of mathematics, science and design. Both through personal projects and commissioned work, his approach brings the precision of a mathematical mind together with a focus on materials and craftsmanship, resulting in designs that convey intricate stories and complex narratives rooted in data.
Jos embraces an interdisciplinary approach, seeking to connect various fields and offer a fresh perspective on data visualisation. In recent years, his work has prominently featured textiles and weaving, in which woven textiles are viewed as binary matrices composed of ones and zeros.