The Logic of Weaving Entwines These Rugs

Rugs have yet again become a popular medium for fresh, unabashed ideation. Art for the floor, this hyper-refined furnishing typology is being reassessed as a potent and plenteous conduit for pictorial representation and abstract expression. Over the past year, established producers, scrappier start-ups, and independent talents have debuted a drove of designs that render this home accessory—once an afterthought—a foremost focal point of the interior.

Reining in this season of extensive exploration is Stockholm-based Massproductions, a prolific product-development practice that prides itself on purpose and clarity, always seeking to translate industrial rationale through different modalities, including handicrafts. The factory is not only a source of inspiration for its product methodology, but also a creative conceit.

The new Cord Collection, developed by the studio for boutique rug producer LAYERED, brings the typology back to its roots, grounding it in the logic of its construction. The four handwoven designs amplify the intrinsically practical, yet also metaphysical, practice and payoff of weaving: the perpendicular crisscrossing of fibrous strands to achieve a planar form that is at once tensile and flexible.

The fresh offering debuted during this year’s 3daysofdesign in an installation featuring spinning columns covered in loose-ended cords. Harnessing the material in apparatuses that mimicked large industrial-grade car-wash brushes, the display demonstrated both the rugs’ dynamism and durability.

Available in Black White, Blue Brown, Rust, and Yellow Oatmeal variants, Cord emphasizes this quality through a unifying stripe layered over its base structure. The strategy allows what is normally a surface-level medium to become three-dimensionally perceptible, both visually and tactilely.

To emphasize the thinking behind this clever yet nuanced line of inquiry, Massproductions co-principals Magnus Elebäck and Chris Martin wanted to subtly play up the fluid line — or stripe, even — between the precision of industrial production and the faint imperfections of the human hand, masterfully engaged in a tried-and-true making technique.

“We wanted to create a dialogue between the natural and the constructed,” Martin says. “By contrasting a base of wool in subdued, neutral shades with a bold, artificial accent color, we found a balance between the organic and the contemporary. Adding a coarser yarn to the stripe was a way to give the two-dimensional weave a physical presence — a quiet dimensionality.”

Why do more products not visually represent and physically embody the ingenuity of the processes involved in their making?

To learn more about the creative powerhouse collaborators, visit massproductions.se and us.layeredinterior.com.

Photography courtesy of LAYERED.

Adrian Madlener is a Brussels-born, New York-based writer specializing in collectible and sustainable design. With a particular focus on topics that exemplify the best in craft-led experimentation, he’s committed to supporting talents that push the envelope in various disciplines.