Studiopepe’s Relevo Rug for Muuto
Italian and Danish design combine for a rug inspired by nature, geometry and relief
Relevo is what happens when Scandinavian design meets Italian style. The new rug collection from Danish company Muuto has been designed by Milan-based Studiopepe, a creative and architecture studio founded in 2006 by Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto. The brief to Studiopepe from Muuto was to design carpets inspired by nature. “We started from aerial views of plowed fields and panoramas, but we also looked at a more artistic world, arriving at land art,” Di Pinto says. The result is a rug that synthesizes rigorous geometries and sinuosity, starting with its shape. It features three right-angled corners and one curved corner, an unexpected element that allows individuals to play with the space.
“We wanted to explore a shape that did not follow a classic rectangular line,” Di Pinto tells us. “A transversal product, suitable for the market, but at the same time had character.” In this way, the rug can become the connecting element between different pieces of furniture and parts of the home. “We envisioned a module that can be connected from the short side or the long side and still work all the time, perhaps for huge rooms,” she continues. “This gives us ease to create a free composition as well.”
The word relevo in Latin means “relief,” the fundamental concept around which this project revolves. The lines across Relevo‘s surface are created through different heights of the tufted surface. Mami explains, “For us, it’s as if [each rug] represents a piece of landscape, in a potentially infinite composition.”
Initially the duo wanted to use two different colors in each rug, but eventually relied on the chiaroscuro (the contrast between light and shade) created by the alternating heights of the wool. They also experimented with fabrics: “We did trials with glossy and matte fibers, even different thicknesses,” Mami says. “The glossy we discarded because you can read the patterns less. We selected a very high-density and a very long pile. This choice creates a much richer, more beautiful aesthetic rendering, even with the matte yarn.”
Reminiscent of typical carpeting of the 1970s, Relevo is altogether inviting. Currently it’s available in off-white, dark green, sage green or burnt, with more hues expected in the future.
Images courtesy of Studiopepe and Muuto
