From the Floor Up

During the London Design Festival, eight young designers from Fabrica reinterpret Tai Ping carpets and leave behind the customary use of a horizontally placed rug.

During the London Design Festival from September 18 to 20, Tai Ping Carpets presents “From the Floor Up,” an exceptional collaboration with Fabrica’s Design Department Director Sam Baron and a team of its emerging talents. The exhibit will be on display at Midori House in Marylebone.

Under the creative leadership of Sam Baron for Fabrica, the Benetton Group communication research centre in Italy, Tai Ping rugs have become works of art as eight young designers reinterpret conventional carpets and leave behind the customary use of a horizontally placed rug. With art as the theme for the exhibition, Baron has given each designer carte blanche to develop and design their own piece.

“From the Floor Up” at Midori House, London

“Whether we are from Asia, Europe or America, we look at rugs differently,” said Baron. “When I approached the eight young designers in residence at Fabrica with the idea of creating a rug which would not be placed on the floor, but instead act as an object, they were inspired by the possibilities. Each used their imagination to create the object, or rug of their dreams.”

By challenging the residents of Fabrica’s design department, Tai Ping has infused its traditional savoir-faire with modernity, and its established artistic character with contemporary design.

The eight designers in residence for the past year at Fabrica in Treviso, Italy include; Dean Brown, Catarina Carreiras, Valentina Carretta, Mariana Fernandes,
Charlotte Juillard, David Raffoul, Ryu Yamamoto and Giorgia Zanellato. For this exhibit, Sam Baron will transform Midori House allowing visitors to explore the extraordinary potential of a rug, displayed in cutting-edge and unique forms.

To inspire their creations, Sam Baron and Fabrica’s young designers visited the Tai Ping factory in Nanhai to work hand in hand with the artisans to understand the celebrated craftsmanship and process. “The work of the Nanhai artisans often flirts with delirium, as each designer’s sketch represents a challenge which often borders on design madness,” says Sam Baron. “But nothing is impossible at Tai Ping. No design, no curve, no colour, no seam resists the creative potential and the savoir-faire of the artisans of this extraordinary factory.”

Each designer has explored the presence of an emblematic object, such as a rug, as it appears in a home. Transformed from an essential item of comfort and decoration, the rug becomes an icon, a sculpture, a concept presented by Fabrica’s emerging designers, which changes its typical use and looks ahead to its future potential.

“When we went to work at the Nanhai factory, we were surprised to see that in the first stage of the manufacturing process the rugs are hung up vertically. This inspired the creation of my rug-curtain concept,” said designer and Creative Director, Sam Baron. “The vertical position is used by the artisans to create the imagined design, and with the hand-tufting guns, they begin working to bring the design to life.”