Desso, a global carpets, carpet tiles and sport pitches
company, celebrates the successful completion of the installation
of its specially designed woven Wilton carpet for the North
Delegates' Lounge at the United Nations' headquarters in New
York.
The lounge is a place where people can meet informally;
there friendships can be formed and agreements sketched out away
from the more formal proceedings.
As part of this project, Desso collaborated with the
Dutch designer Hella Jongerius to create the most impactful carpet
texture and colour for this important new project.
Hella Jongerius was part of a Dutch design team
provided to the UN as a gift from the Netherlands. The designs
submitted were assessed by a selection committee headed by the
Netherlands' Chief Government Architect. A key criterion was
whether the design team took an interdisciplinary approach, in
keeping with practices of the original team of architects involved
in the 1950's design of the UN headquarters in New York, which
included Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Max Abramovitz and Wallace
K. Harrison.
The winning Dutch team also included the
architectural firm OMA, the graphic designer Irma Boom, the artist
Gabriel Lester and the theorist Louise Schouwenberg. Their aim was
to transform the North Delegates' Lounge into a
'Gesamtkunstwerk'(total work of art) that would put the Dutch
creative industries in the international spotlight.
“It is exciting for us to be involved in such an inspiring and creative project. It is thrilling to imagine that in the future, diplomats and politicians might develop informal friendships and find solutions to some of the world’s crises and difficulties in this newly designed room with our carpets. Hella was searching for a specific kind of feel reminiscent of the traditional Berber woollen carpets, so we developed a special carpet just for this project which had a different mix of wool and goat hair to achieve the coarser texture she was looking for.”
Roland Jonkhoff, Regional Managing Director Desso
The carpet uses three different design patterns including two fishbone elements and consists of two shades of colour: plain dark brown in the entrance area which due to an intricate duo-tone weave turns into a more greyish brown shade further on.
- Share this page:
