Kvadrat Textile and Design

During the London Design Festival, Kvadrat launched a new book illustrating the symbiosis between nature, manufacturing, architecture, design and art which guides its ethos.

In collaboration with Prestel, one of the world’s leading publishers in the world of art, architecture, photography and design, Kvadrat launches Interwoven – Kvadrat Textile and Design on 17 September at their London showroom during the London Design Festival 2013.

Top: Kvadrat, Wooltex Ltd, Huddersfield, England. Photo Joël Tettamanti. Above: Interwoven: Kvadrat textile and design, book cover

Since its foundation in 1968, the Danish textile company has nurtured creative partnerships with an evolving creative community, collaborating with and supporting designers, architects and artists. Reflecting the integrated working practice of the company, the book illustrates the symbiosis between nature, manufacturing, architecture, design and art which guides Kvadrat’s ethos, and the way that each of these diverse elements educates and inspires the others.

Nanna Ditzel and Percy von Halling-Koch in the showroom of the Halling-Koch Design Center, 1965

“We are delighted to have partners like Prestel and Robert Violette for this project, which is many years in the making and came about very organically”, says Anders Byriel, CEO of Kvadrat. “From the Scandinavian design roots of our beginnings to the more international role Kvadrat is taking on in today’s global marketplace, innovation and creative collaborations have been a key part of Kvadrat since my father Poul and his partner Erling Rasmussen founded the company more than four decades ago”.

Patricia Urquiola and Giulio Ridolfo, The Dwelling Lab, 2010 (In collaboration with BMW, Kvadrat showroom, Milan)

Interwoven is a celebration of the wider universe which surrounds the company, drawing a thread from its deep roots in the coastal landscape of Eastern Denmark, through its engagement with artistic pioneers of the twentieth century, such as Verner Panton and Nanna Ditzel, and the leading talents of the new generation, including Patricia Urquiola, Giulio Ridolfo, Alfredo Haberli, Raw-Edges Design Studio, Doshi Levien, Rosemarie Trockel and Roman Signer.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, North Tiles, 2006 (Installed in Kvadrat’s Stockholm showroom)

Tracing the company’s founding principle to produce a machine-made fabric without losing its artistic integrity; the book captures the origins of the now iconic Hallingdal created by Denmark’s Nanna Ditzel. Today Hallingdal can be found all around the world, including the Debating Chamber of the German Reichstag. More recent projects with Tord Boontje, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and Thomas Demand have led to collaborations with world renowned institutions such as London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and the Serpentine Gallery as well as the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

Raw Edges Design Studio, Selvedge, 2012

Interwoven brings together original essays and photographs with previously unseen Kvadrat's archival material and historical research in a beautifully illustrated 200 page hardcover book. Bound in bespoke woollen cloth, it features a foreword by Peter Saville and contributions from Tord Boontje, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Denise Hagstr.mer, Hettie Judah, Sevil Peach, Matt Price, Zo. Ryan, Jo.l Tettamanti and Jane Withers.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Clouds, 2009 (detail, elastic band fixings)


Violette Publications (ed.), Interwoven – Kvadrat Textile and Design, Prestel
29 x 29 cm 272 pp, 200 col. illus. (ISBN 978-3-7913-4858-2)
Design: Graphic Thought Facility
Price £ 35 with Kvadrat textile hardcover

Fabric-themed tandem bicycle, presented by Percy von Halling-Koch to Kvadrat founders Poul Bryriel and Erling Rasmussen, 1980