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Inspired by some of the natural phenomena caused by climate change — melting ice caps, evaporating lakes, wild weather forecasts, and seismic shifts in our ever-changing world — Brooklyn-born artist Fernando Mastrangelo has created a collection of luxury rugs called “Reverence,” which reflects the patterns of our beautiful planet, for well-known carpet retailers Edward Fields.

What’s the Concept Behind the Designs?

Featuring individual designs with names like “Melt,” “Crash,” and “Fracture,” Reverence is a “record of our times,” one inspired by worldly landscapes that crack, break, rupture, and swell. Mimicking physical changes that take place outside the realm of humanity, the collection of modern rugs showcases abstract and geometric patterns that mirror the natural world, embedding our geography into the very threads each rug.

Fusing natural imagery from landscapes like glacial plains and salt flats with textural compositions, these rugs are far more than simple decor pieces — they’re also art. They evoke a sense of realism through their watercolor palette, and the neutralization of their hand-crafted fibers blends seamlessly into an array of ombre hues.

The Designs

“Break 1” is made up of dominant lines that cut through marbled grey shapes, which are meant to represent the chunks of floating ice in the ocean that have begun to drift further away from the poles. Mostly blending together cool shades of blue and gray, the collection sticks to a subtle color scheme, though as you can see below in “Fracture 1,” soft pink is sometimes used to accentuate the otherwise grayscale designs. Several of these patterns have also been derived from real locations (for example, Yellowstone National Park‘s iconic travertine terraces and the salt flats in Utah).

For some added texture, the rugs have all been woven out of silk and wool yarns, and high shag has been interspersed amongst their low-pile sections in order to create a rigidity that mirrors that of earthy crevices. In “Arena 1,” (pictured below) the material is used to highlight the indentations left behind when water recedes from a particular terrain — marks and imprints that are sure to last several lifetimes.

Who Designed Them?

From blended silk and wool yarns to shag and edging, each fiber in the collection is meticulously crafted by the artisans at Edward Fields, though the concepts themselves were conceived of by Fernando Mastrangelo. As the great mind behind the project, Mastrangelo brings to these pieces the same considerate spirit that is usually found in his sculptural works.

The Reverence series also resembles some of Mastrangelo’s earlier work, particularly a collection of nature-inspired furniture he designed, in which colorful gradients were utilized to reflect (once again) the patterns found in natural environments. With that collection, Mastrangelo made it onto Dezeen’s “Ones to Watch” list. “Fade” was also showcased at New York Design Week in 2016.

“From the beginning, I wanted Reverence to articulate the visual language of nature and to convey a sense of wonder and respect for our physical world — all while celebrating the endurance of form and color.” — Fernando Mastrangelo.

Where Can I Get One?

Head on over to the Edward Fields website and filter through their many made-to-order floor coverings. Visit the “Editions” page and click on Reverence for photos of the full collection of beautiful climate change designs.

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Strands of discarded yarn from a textile manufacturer become the sky, water, sand, bark and moss in realistic large-scale landscapes by Alexandra Kehayoglou in project intersecting fine art and carpet making. The artist retrieves scraps and unwanted materials from her family’s Buenos Aires factory, El Espartano, and painstakingly manipulates the threads into a point-by-point weft to create layer after layer of each composition.

The results are textural tapestries worthy of any gallery wall, yet still practical for functional usage. Some larger pieces stretch from the wall onto the floor, effectively immersing the viewer in the natural location of the artist’s choosing, whether that’s a dark, lush forest or a palm tree-lined beach.

Some pieces are designed to lay on the floor like conventional carpets, but their irregular shape makes them look like islands and archipelagos of greenery set against hard, impersonal surfaces like tile or even the asphalt of streets when they’re on display outdoors.

El Espartano is known for using highly distinctive yarn and thread to produce heirloom-quality textiles, and through her art, Kehayaglou expands her family’s legacy in a new direction.

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The evidence of another person passing through a room, clumsily upturning the corner of a rug, shifts from a temporary annoyance into a permanent feature with this clever piece of furniture. Stumble Upon by Alessandro Isola is a rug with a built-in coffee table consisting of its own curving edge, hardened to provide a stable surface.

A reflective underside makes the corner stand out, providing a sharp contrast between the rug and its own underlay, one side richly textural and the other perfectly smooth.

This part of the rug, usually not meant to be seen, becomes even more of a visual highlight than its soft surface, adding a functional place to set books or drinks while seated on the floor.

Says the designer, “If you look down you may see a crease, a fold or a wrinkle in the carpet for instance. Signifying a movement or activity that happened on the surface of that very floor space.”

“Taking inspiration from the creases and folds of carpets that one can stumble upon, usually causing slight annoyance, this coffee table enhances those folds and curves creating an aesthetic and functional effect. The project captures an ephemeral, accidental and everyday movement and freezes it in time, giving to it a new, extra dimension – that of a coffee table. The fold of the corner edge is exaggerated to produce a dual surface; a handmade rug on the top, and an underlying perfectly smooth, flat surface. Usually the back of a rug is not as attractive and the project here provides for an alternative twist.”

“From a stumble on a rug, an annoying accident, becomes the inspiration for an everyday object: the Stumble Upon Coffee Table.”

About the designer:

“Alessandro Isola studio is a multidisciplinary design practice based in London that specialises in architecture, interiors, and product design. The studio was founded in 2014 by Alessandro Isola. Alessandro’s formal training began at home in Italy, where he studied Art and Interior Architecture in Milan. He then headed to England and graduated in Architecture at the Oxford Brookes University School of Architecture, where he was granted a distinction and awarded the coveted Michael King memorial prize.”

“He then concluded his studies at the prestigious Architectural Association in London and worked for Foster + Partners where he also gained his RIBA/ARB professional chartered qualification. He then co-founded IM Lab and subsequently started his practice in 2014.”

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If you’re the type of person who cares about clothing labels, Scandinavian design company Kings of Sweden have the perfect floor covering for you. Their Branded rug is made entirely of leather labels from old jeans, pieced together patchwork style into a strangely beautiful home accessory.

Look closely and you’ll see Ralph Lauren, Levis, American Eagle, Wrangler, and a ton of other recognizable names. The designers say “What was discarded in Western industrialized nations, awakened by diversity of creativity back to life.” The concept of using pieces of clothing for other purposes after the clothing is worn out isn’t new; people have been making rag rugs out of old jeans for decades. Making a rug from the labels, however, is something we haven’t seen done before.

The Branded rug is a truly beautiful creation, and its recycled materials make it eco-friendly, so you don’t have to feel bad about walking around on a big leather rug. It’s available in two sizes: 140 x 200 cm (about 55″ X 6.5′) and 160 x 240 cm (about 63″ X 7.8′) and they don’t come cheap. The smaller rug will run you €399 (about $550 US) and the larger one costs €545 (around $750 US).

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The beauty of nature and all of its creatures is widely celebrated, but there is also something to be said for the odd beauty of imperfection.  Lanzavecchia + Wai‘s series of Mutazoni (“Mutations”) rugs depict two fictitious insects that, in the minds of the designers, were distorted and deformed by the actions of mankind.

The first invented species is called Tacua Fukushimae, imagined to have been created by the Fukushima disaster. It’s a strangely lovely cicada with uneven eyes and a number of other deformities. While natural insects display a large amount of symmetry, the insects in this unique series are more like a “spot the difference” game between the two halves of each insect.

This beetle is called Amaurodes Chernobilis, a bug imagined to have been the result of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Like the cicada, the beetle is deformed by its unfortunate past. The imagined insects may not be perfect, but they are adorably quirky and the rugs look so soft that we wouldn’t mind having bugs on the floor.

“Invisible. Scentless. Going through walls and into us, animals and plants and affecting all life on a cellular level. We are bombarded by it from the cosmos, the earth itself and activities in everyday life, but radiation, sometimes caricatured in science-fiction and popular entertainment, has very real ramifications to our biology and ecology. This has been brought to the fore of the world’s attention through the atomic bombing that ended World War II, nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima in very recent history.”

“The fear of nuclear energy is matched by only our awe and growing dependence on it. Lanzavecchia + Wai, deeply fascinated by historical entomological illustrations and triggered by the effects of radiation on living beings, designed the MUTAZIONI carpets for high design rug company NODUS. The carpets present the top-down view of two fictitious insects Amaurodes Chernobilis and Tacua Fukushimae, resembling a mounted insect specimen.”

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Hardwood floors are gorgeous, but quite expensive – Ruckstuhl splits the difference between the affordability of carpet and the beauty of hardwood with their Legno-Legno wooden carpet.

Designed to roll up just like an area rug, the elegant wooden carpet is much easier to maintain than traditional carpet but is just as versatile.

The simple lines and warm colors of the wooden carpets add a certain elegance to a room, particularly those in rented homes that suffer from bare concrete floors.

Ruckstuhl’s innovative wooden carpets are made of 90% real wood and 10% polyurethane and come in several colors to match and complement a variety of decors.

“A pure wooden carpet that can still be rolled up – resulting in completely new possibilities of floor design, extending the boundaries of the traditional rug. “

“While Ruckstuhl works with a lot of external designers, the Ruckstuhl Atelier designs a great deal of its products in-house. Over the years, the company has developed a distinctive design vision that is both timeless and surprising. The focus always lies on high quality natural materials that provide elegance, warmth and coziness, while being durable and long lasting.”

“The Ruckstuhl manufactory was founded in 1881 in the Swiss city of Langenthal. And for more than 136 years, we have been getting up every day to manufacture premium carpets and acoustic solutions of the highest quality – all made from natural materials. Our credo Nature Becomes Culture perfectly defines our commitment to sustainability, quality and design. We use natural fibers such as wool, linen, coir and sisal to skillfully create welcoming domestic atmospheres, contributing warmth and comfort. Be it in offices, stores, hotels or at home.”

“We process sustainable raw materials to manufacture products that are durable and retain their looks with age. Through this authentic approach, coupled with a refined and timeless design attitude, our company and our products have developed into instantly recognizable icons over the years. We invite you to touch and feel the surface of said icons and discover the naturally different world of Ruckstuhl.”

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Greenery outside of planters always sounds great in theory, but what happens when it gets overgrown, requires extra care or just generally starts to make a mess? Those are the questions that this organic carpet design by plant artist Makoto Azuma attempts to address, in cooperation with Unitika, displayed at the Milan Furniture Fair (with photos from Inhabitat.)

The magic is what happens underneath the rug: a plant-based fiber supporting roots and storing seeds that is “decomposed (biodegraded) by microorganisms in compost or in soil after 10 years. Eventually only carbon dioxide and water remain.”

“TERRAMAC is named by combining ‘TERRA’ meaning ‘earth’ or ‘mother earth’ and ‘MAC’ meaning ‘Son’ in Latin. The name, TERRAMAC, expresses ‘children (sons) of the mother earth’ and carries an image of the ‘products friendly to the earth and loved by all animate being.'”

“My work for this exhibition shows the encounter and coexistence of two lifeforms with different origins. living things connect strongly and straightforwardly, and conceal unlimited possibilities,” says the artist of his moss carpets.

The exhibit built upon “Time for Moss,” another installation by Makoto Azuma, which debuted at Tokyo Fiber ’09.  Get a good look at the details – which sometimes include carnivorous plants like the Venus fly trap – and you’ll realize that perhaps the moss isn’t great to walk on, after all. But there seems to be some potential in the concept, and maybe having a living carpet in your home is preferable to a bunch of plastic anyway.

Makoto Azuma is known for spectacular plant-based sculptural works, many testifying to the resiliency of nature in even the harshest of environments. He has photographed bonsai in abandoned places, created many sculptural installations using living flowers and has even sent bouquets into space, photographing them against the cloudy blue atmosphere of Earth. His nature art is no less than stunning, and there’s always more to it than appears at first glance.

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Andrea Brena took some time off from school to get his hands dirty (or at least brightly-colored), dabbling in the old art of arm knitting using trashed textile scraps from chairs, couches, carpets and pillows.

The result are a neat series of rugs, seats and more, all created with a physical process in which the body is involved on a high level, almost like a dance or hand-carved sculpture.

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