Material culture

Dynamic design duo Doshi Levien have collaborated with Danish textile masters Kvadrat to create their first curtain collection. The recent launch of the first curtain collection by renowned British/ Indian design duo Doshi Levien for Kvadrat was greeted with high acclaim, and to celebrate its premiere the design duo created Pilotis, a naïve, futuristic and architecturally formed installation for the Kvadrat Maharam showroom of Dubai Design Week. The pairing took a moment to reveal their process and the secret of positive collaboration. What was your inspiration for the collection? Utopia and Lake were inspired by hard and textured architectural surfaces like machined and cast concrete, brushed anodised aluminium, glass, weathered metal and rendered walls. On that basis, we created a series of new surface textures and cast them in plaster. The play of light and shadow on the relief resulted in the jacquard pattern of Utopia. The iridescence and luminous quality of glass and brushed aluminium is interpreted as the diagonal twill lines of Lake. We researched Le Corbusier’s tapestries and paintings found in Chandigarh, the city in India he planned and designed.

Although the inspiration for Utopia and Lake came from hard surfaces, when translated into curtains the soft drape creates a fluid pattern. Rocket and Fiction are both knits with a naïve and futuristic optimism. The perforations of Rocket are inspired by high-tech fabrics used in sports and fashion, with a science fiction- feel of space age, lightness and speed. We wanted to create technical fabrics but with soft architectural colours. We imagine the Rocket and Fiction used in layers, with the colours of Fiction coming through the perforated knit of Rocket. What was your brief? There wasn’t a set brief, but more an invitation to propose design directions. However, from the outset we decided to work on curtains. In the beginning our ideas were artistic explorations in architectural textures and colours. It was through a dialogue that we decided to pursue two distinct directions. Utopia and Lake have an architectural feel, and Rocket and Fiction are more playful and avant-garde. How does the installation reflect the new collection? Pilotis is an architectural installation inspired by ‘béton brut’, with smooth columns of reinforced concrete that symbolise modernist architecture. Anthropomorphic pilotis of textured, smooth and perforated fabrics are juxtaposed with each other, creating a play with light and darkness. The machine-like texture of Utopia is combined with the smooth iridescence of Lake; the perforations of Rocket are layered with opaque Fiction. What were the challenges? The biggest challenge in designing any textile is the big leap between design and the actual fabric. Mixing colours of warp and wefts is an inexact science and there are many unexpected but surprising results. Unlike upholstery fabrics that are used on furniture, curtain fabrics are hung and the scale is architectural. We tried to capture the architectural scale with softness in the installation. What did it mean to you to collaborate with Kvadrat? There is great openness to ideas and we had complete freedom at the conceptual stage. We worked very closely with the design team, who supported us through all the technical challenges. This openness with a strong sense of direction for us is unique to their company.