KnollTextiles‘ Adjaye Collection is a highly anticipated collaboration between David Adjaye and KnollTextiles Creative Director Dorothy Cosonas, a meeting of African aesthetics with the language of modern fabrics.
After collaborating with Knoll on furniture in the past few years, Adjaye brings his many years of travels across the whole African continent into colourful, textural fabrics both woven and digitally printed, comprising of two wall coverings, two draperies and four upholstery patterns.
The African inspiration is palpable, and the display set-up also contributes to communicate the beauty of the palette and the richness of the textures.
knoll neocon 2015 david adjaye and dorothy cosonas
The Adjaye Collection for KnollTextiles coincides with “David Adjaye Selects”, an exhibition on African textiles at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, which is curated by Adjaye himself from works held in their permanent collection.
The end result is an extraordinary range of patterns and textures inspired by African geography, nature, and culture.
“The idea of debunking that stereotypical ethnographic image of the continent is very important to me,” … David Adjaye
The collection displays Adjaye’s unique perspective on geometric and organic systems, which is translated through varied weave structures and print techniques.
Digitally printed to mimic building textures and named after cherished places in Adjaye’s native Africa, such as Djenne and Lagos, the six upholstery and two window fabrics are woven of cotton, nylon, polyester, rayon, viscose, and linen.
There’s also a wall-covering pattern constructed of PVC and cotton.
knoll textiles showroom neocon 2015
knoll textiles neocon 2015 awards
The collection features 6 x upholsteries, 2 x draperies, and 1 x wallcovering.
Each abstract pattern is named after a city in Africa cherished by Adjaye.
Upholstery
The upholsteries of the collection translate Adjaye’s fascination with combining recognizable geometric shapes with more texture-based weaves evoked by environments, atmosphere and memories, onto fabric.
They paint a picture of Africa as seen by Adjaye, as well as drawing inspiration from objects in the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design’s permanent collection and Adjaye’s own artwork.
Aswan upholstery
Cairo upholstery
Djenne upholstery
Kampala upholstery
Lagos upholstery
Meroe upholstery
Drapery
Kumsai drapery
Kumasi is inspired by the patterning of an Adinkra Wrapper from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum,
Dakar is a more architecturally rooted design and references the coastal city of Western Senegal, as well as Adjaye’s personal artwork.
Dakar drapery
Wallcoverings
Harare wallcoverings
Harare is a printed wall covering also referencing the pattern of an Adrinka Wrapper from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
Despite being printed, Harare embodies a feeling of movement generally found in a woven textile.
knolltextiles adjaye collection
knoll neocon 2015 Dorothy Cosonas and David Adjaye
About David Adjaye
David Adjaye and the ” Washington chairs” for Knoll
David Adjaye is a world-renowned architect with projects spanning across four continents.
He is known for his artist’s insight and for intertwining the traditional aesthetics of his African roots with those of modern design.
Adjaye is based in London and is widely considered one of the foremost architects of his generation.
The Adjaye Collection expands Adjaye’s creative relationship with Knoll to KnollTextiles.
The critically acclaimed Washington Collection for Knoll, including Washington Skeleton and Washington Skin chairs and Washington Corona Table were launched in 2013.
For Neocon 2015 Knoll released David’s latest furniture pieces – the Prism collection ( above )
