The main area of the showroom highlights Kvadrat's core values - expertise in color and engineering and commitment to conscious design principles – while creating a compelling context for interaction with the company’s upholsteries, curtains, and rugs.
By elevating visitors and colleagues, the catwalk provides thought-provoking perspectives on art projects and exhibitions in the gallery area. One of the main purposes of the catwalk is to hang textiles into the space so that they can be experienced from several perspectives. The square form of the catwalk ties in with the intuitive choreography of the showroom, which references that Kvadrat is the Danish word for square.
"Kvadrat's name derives from the squares on gridded point paper, which were used to record textile patterns before computers. This history was important for me when designing the company's first New York Showroom."
Jonathan Olivares
The showroom furniture has also been developed by Jonathan. Metal and wooden tables at the showroom have been designed as architectural objects that strengthen the space with ample work surfaces. The metalwork on display exemplifies the attention to detail that Kvadrat champions. Meanwhile, the smallest object realised for the showroom, a wooden side table, recalls the square's linguistic and physical qualities and the grid associated with textile design.
Jonathan Olivares also designed the flexible, work-orientated Square Chair, created in collaboration with Moroso - which takes its formal language from the square. The Square Chairs are used to display a range of colourways for each upholstery - a matter of curiosity for many visitors. For the opening, the Square Chairs will be upholstered in Twill Weave and Broken Twill Weave.
Based on the concept of Twill Weave, the new textile designed by Jonathan Olivares, Broken Twill Weave features a precise herringbone structure and a versatile selection of colourways inspired by an experimental house in Mexico that Jonathan Olivares has conceptualised.