The design industry is moving away from the expected, over-repeated typologies – seating and lighting – and expanding its focus to the most neglected elements of our interiors. More and more brands are fully dedicating themselves to categories that were previously taken for granted: finishes like hardware and accessories like cutlery.
This renewed spirit of fresh ideation, focused on both stylistic exploration and functional reimagining, has extended to home textiles. With a range of highly expressive and highly pictorial rugs currently on the market, why not reassess other treatments – such as wallpaper and drapery? Never one to rest on their laurels, Danish textile brand Square has taken on the project, unleashing the visually and structurally daring THREE collection during this month 3daysofdesignCopenhagen’s increasingly influential city-wide event.
Throw in both grounded earth tones and vibrant hues, the extensive offering includes 14 new designs. Very different in style and articulation, they are united by the underlying idea that draperies can and should carry the formal and aesthetic weight of sculpture and architectural structure. Simple, subtle, frankly faded color blocking has been negotiated for patterns and volumetric variation. Raw fibers like hemp, wool and organic cotton are finally allowed to be themselves—to do what’s natural. The full range of what old weaving techniques can achieve is also on display.
Available in Wool, Tan, Reed, Bark and Dim Grey, Tetra it has an airy, flowing, three-dimensional quality thanks to the leno weave and wool yarn makeup with dense felt. A flame retardant curtain fabric, Triple tone it leverages the centuries-old jacquard method to create a shimmering effect.
Kvadrat Residential Creative Director Isa Glink revealed that this diverse range was developed with architectural outline and construction as references. There are, it turns out, some positives for the fashion industry’s foray into furniture and furnishings. It is not only the trappings of superficial, image-centric cultural production or the rapid trend cycles of this adjacent field that have an impact, but perhaps also the hyper-sophisticated techniques of assemblage and form-finding.
Produced in Creamy White, Maple, Khaki, Fresh Water and Misty Sage colors, Kayak it is made using a highly intricate stitch that imbues the fabric with the sensation of moving water. Improve the line The subtly differentiated, multi-layered surface pattern becomes fully apparent under different kinds of natural and synthetic light.
On the bolder and weirder side of things, there are Loop line and Magnet. While the former combines a strikingly juxtaposed cut-pile wool typology with a fresh linen ground, the latter is an open yet structurally sound warp knit. This graphic, almost architectural product – available in Laser Lemon, Sensha Green and Nightwave, among other cleverly chosen hues – magnifies the industrial mesh used in various fields. Thanks to the skillful fashion model that defines the overall collection, it can also be fitted with a zip: an intervention that responds to the growing demand of customers for easy adaptability.
To know more about the brand, visit kvadrat.dk.
Photo by Jannick Pihl Rasmussen.
