Salone del Mobile, 15 – 21 April 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.
April 16, 2024
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. The original colours for the Re-wool palette were all picked from Margrethe Odgaard’s ‘Shades of Light’ collection of hand-painted samples, comprised of blended notes inspired by the transitions from light to darkness unique to Scandinavia. When updating the colourways, Margrethe Odgaard observed that the melange warp could carry more saturated colours than initially thought, and so supplemented the existing weft palette with brighter blues, rusty reds, and vibrant greens, as well as deeper shades of blue and brown that bring out the tones of the recycled wool. As a result of this contrast, the textile’s surface is reminiscent of embroidery-like craftwork and appears almost three- dimensional.
Margrethe Odgaard: “While many of the original colours for Re-wool are toned-down, for Re-wool 2, I dared to celebrate the undefined tones of the recycled wool by combining it with bolder colours. The refreshed colour palette adds a breadth of tempo. It offers slow colours with built-in longevity as well as energy-shaping, cheeky colours.”
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.
Margrethe Odgaard: “My starting point was the idea that light gives colours life. Colours that live in nature fade, bloom, and develop because of this light. So, we have dedicated Azure Outdoor to the sky and its transitioning light.”
Azure Outdoor is constructed with a dobby weave, creating a seemingly textured surface even though the textile is quite flat in its construction. In addition, the textile is designed with effective weather resistance
and with a fluorocarbon-free finish that is water-repellent, fast-drying and provides resistance against chlorine, seawater, and artificial weathering
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.
The colour system created for Serpentine balances small areas of vivid colours in the warp, inspired by his trips to Mexico, with subtler notes in the thick weft yarn, resulting in a lively palette of 12 colourways.
Giulio Ridolfo: “Serpentine connects points of culture. The holistic, organic tones of the thick yarn reference the colours present in my life in Italy, such as adobe brick, mud, stone, and terracotta. This is combined with a resonating buzz of electricity from the Mexican-inspired colours of the thinner yarn, often used for ornamental details on local textiles.”
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.
The colour palette for Today is suitable for everyday use and impresses with natural powdery and chalky tones like Sea salt, Eclipse, Sky and Slate, that generate a calming, yet vivid atmosphere. Echoing the colours of Tonight, both curtains can be combined seamlessly to create a joyful interplay of varying shades and transparencies that emphasise their individual character.
It is crafted from a twisted, spun polyester yarn by Trevira CS eco, which is flame-retardant and derived from 100% recycled post- production waste.
The slight variations in the finely spun yarn create subtle irregularities, which contribute to the specific expression of the curtain. As the yarn is used in both the warp and the weft, this effect occurs in both directions, resulting in a shifting but harmonious, balanced structure that is reminiscent of crossing lines.
Tonight is a piece-dyed woven blackout curtain with a gentle and sophisticated personality. Crafted from 70% recycled polyester, the curtain has a remarkably soft drape and a lustrous, almost silky surface with a smooth hand. The colour come in twelve diverse and appealing colours, ranging from light, muted natural tones to deeper and richer hues like Sky, Forest, Eclipse and Silver Grey.
When light hits the monochrome surface, these colours are given a fascinating shimmering depth, and the subtle structure of diagonal ribs is brought to life. Due to its special weaving construction the twill weave is reversible and can be hung vertically and horizontally.
Kvadrat rugs
Corde Droit and Corde Chevron – rugs by Ronan Bouroullec
The Corde Collection rugs derive dynamic colour depth from the vibrant dialogue between their tie-dyed yarns. Corde Droit features straight lines in horizontal and vertical patterns, while Corde Chevron reinterprets the classic Herringbone design. It is the latest collections by acclaimed designer Ronan Bouroullec and consist 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.
“Drawing has always been part of my life, a long time before I became interested in design,“ says Ronan. “I have always drawn with different types of tools, from ballpoint in a café to a large brush in my studio, drawing, it’s like a constant companion for me.”
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. The rug’s precision and tactility derive from a sophisticated construction incorporating 150 warp and 40 weft threads. The intricate design reflects Jos Klarenbeek’s mathematical background and his years of experimentation with combining dual systems, threading techniques and binding patterns.
Yield Collection of rugs
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. Yield offers a subtly irregular play of small checks. It is woven with a naturally coloured warp and a single-
coloured weft. Hand-plied and twisted Yield Melange has a sophisticated melange look and expresses a delicate sense of ebbing movement. Yield Dot incorporates a third coloured yarn which creates small, consistently spaced dots that seemingly float across its front surface. On its back side, they are more elongated. Yield Dot’s colours exclusively derive from the natural notes of the pure new wool.
Sahco 2024 collection: Wild Bouquet
Wild yet calm, emotional yet composed, grounded yet revolutionary, the Sahco 2024 collection builds on its rich heritage, reviving and rethinking classic motifs with a 21st century mindset. Like a bouquet of exotic flowers, precious buds and native grasses, the collection binds textiles with idiosyncratic or subtle character into a cohesive whole. During Salone del Mobile, the collection will be showcased in Kvadrat’s high-end residential showroom at Corso Monforte 15.
The 2024 drapery and upholstery collection draws inspiration from the late 18th-early 19th century movement known as Neo-classicism of the North, fusing grandeur, ornamentation and sophistication with a more restrained Nordic expression of elegance and good taste. Much-loved tropes – leopard patterns, polka dots, epic florals – are recast. Intentions are serious, outcomes playful. Quality is paramount and longevity a given. The palette draws on the Nordic landscape with colours such as pine tree, bear brown and glacier blue, infused with splashes of picnic red, apple green, evening pink and citrine yellow. At the heart of the collection are foundational blacks and whites in all their intensities and shades.
Bengt Thornefors, Creative Director Sahco: “We were inspired by this book called Neo-classicism in the North, which sparked a blurry idea or a spirit for where we were going. Studying classic motifs or even borderline tacky ones and executing them in a way that places them in another context. People relate to them but are excited or moved by how we have recast them, so they see them in a new light.”
The presentation of the collection will play on the concept of a wild bouquet, manifested as large flowers made from the textiles and shown as part of a contemporary interior landscape. Under the leadership of Creative Director Bengt Thornefors, Sahco has embarked on a radical path, honouring its 200-year-old legacy while imbuing the Maison with a shiver of sensuality. Sahco has pioneered a new way of presenting home textiles, taking cues from fashion culture and the arts, and their interplay with interior design.
“The wild bouquet is a descriptive and evocative way of showing how these very different patterns, colours and textures can come together. The Sahco universe is one of contrasts and then finding balance in the composition. It is really important to show the textiles together, as they become something much more. A lot of people are searching for newness
but I think greatness is a better ambition. Our intention is to create products that have a reason to be. I would like to be able to hand it over to my kids, that’s what we have in mind when we create products.”
NOTES FOR THE EDITORS
Press preview
Monday 15 April, 10 am – 6 pm
Interviews with Bengt Thornefors upon request
Kvadrat residential showroom Corso Monforte 15
20122 Milan
Opening hours
Tuesday – Wednesday and Friday, 10 am – 8 pm Thursday and Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm
Sunday, 10 am – 4 pm
Notes to the editor
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.
About Bengt Thornefors
Swedish born, Bengt Thornefors was a senior designer at Acne Studios in Stockholm for nine years from 2003-2011. In 2012 he became Senior Designer & Artistic Consultant for YSL Saint Laurent, during the tenure of Hedi Slimane as Creative Director. Thornefors founded Magniberg with Nina Norgren, a florist and graphic designer in 2016. Magniberg takes it directions outside of the boundaries of sexes; a meeting between expressions of the modern world; playing on contrasts; breaking rules and classical norms. Thornefors became Creative Director of Sahco in January, 2022.
About Sahco
For almost 200 years, Sahco has defined exquisite taste and superior quality in the world of interiors. Combining classic design and innovation, the elegant upholstery textiles and draperies of the Sahco collection have captured the hearts of a discerning international audience. Their rich textures and refined details can be found in many beautiful homes worldwide. It has been owned by Kvadrat since 2018. Under Creative Director Bengt Thornefors, it will be at the forefront of the industry, setting new standards and defining an interior landscape of rich textures and striking design for today and the future.