WORLD PREMIERE FOR KASTHALL DESIGN COLLABORATION WITH ILSE CRAWFORD

At the Salone del Mobile in Milan last week, Kasthall launched its design collaboration with the British designer Ilse Crawford. The collection, called Grönska, consists of two tufted and three woven rugs. Crawford drew inspiration for Grönska from the Swedish landscape around the Kasthall factory in Kinna, Västergötland.

Since it was founded in 1889, the international design brand Kasthall and its factory have been located in the little town of Kinna. When Ilse Crawford visited the factory for the first time and saw the surrounding meadows and fields, she was inspired to create Grönska. The collection was developed both as a tribute to the life, colours, patterns and textures of the Swedish landscape, and to address the general desire to bring more green into our interiors.

“The factory feels very connected to the surrounding fields and farmland, so designing a collection of rugs that reflects such an important part of Kasthall’s identity and history was a natural step. Like Kasthall’s carpets it’s a landscape made by humans and their machines” says Ilse Crawford. “And what’s more, in all our work these days, we see a cultural shift towards greener architecture and interiors. We live most of our lives indoors, so a physical connection to nature inside is important. The colour green brings a sense of life to our interiors, has a positive impact on our health and in the right shades is perceived as neutral.”

The design collaboration, which began in spring 2017, consists of three woven rugs, Fåra, Glänta and Ängsmark, as well as the hand-tufted rugs Täppa and Åker. Crawford and her team, in collaboration with Kasthall Design Studio, explored different weaving and tufting techniques in order to reflect the rythm, irregularity, and diverse tones of the different types of landscapes throughout the year. These qualities are infused into the rugs – and in turn into the homes and public spaces where we live and spend time. Developing the right greens was a challenge. For example Kasthall Design Studio together with Crawford and her team started experimenting with a new dyeing method for melange hair yarn. It was important to make sure that dynamic, natural colour shifts in the wool shone through. The result was a yarn with new depths. This yarn is an important component of two of the new rugs, the woven rug Ängsmark and the tufted rug Åker.

“Ilse Crawford is a world-leading designer and entering into a design collaboration with her has felt spot on throughout the design process. Ilse shares the same values of sustainable, long-lasting design as Kasthall and furthermore she understands our Scandinavian design and cultural heritage. We are also proud that the Grönska collection pays tribute to the very place where we have been located since 1889,” says Lena Jiseborn, Design Director, Kasthall.

The Grönska collection will be displayed in a retrospective exhibition of Studioilse furniture at the Kasthall showroom in Brera during the Milan Design Week. The exhibition will remain until end of May.

While Kasthall’s customers are found all over the world, each rug crafted by the international brand is custom made in Kinna. Kasthall does not keep stocks of rugs and they are not transported to and sold in shops. In this way, unnecessary consumption of materials, dyes, resources, energy and transportation are kept at a minimum. All rugs in the Grönska collection will be part of Kasthall’s permanent collection, except for the rug Åker, which is being produced in a limited edition of 50 rugs in total.