Tappeti CEO Karinna Gobbo and Architology co-founder Terrence Quah talk us through their collaboration on a glamorous line of custom rugs, and the transformation of a newly refurbished duplex in the waterfront Sentosa condo, Seascape.
Boulevard: How did the collaboration start?
Gobbo: I started Tappeti 18 years ago out of my passion for design and for working with interior designers. In Asia, we’ve got so many talented designers, but I feel design needs to be elevated a bit more and the value of design should be greater in our community. So I was here in Singapore 18 months ago, and had the idea while I was planning for the year ahead – we have done one-on-one collections before, but we’ve never done five artists in one collection. So the idea was to work with prominent local designers to create a collection that represents themselves as artists. It’s about elevating the awareness of design in Singapore.
Blvd: So how did you work with the five designers – what was the brief, or the scope?
Gobbo: The only brief we gave was around approximate size. They could use custom shapes, custom colours and different textures. We did choose the manufacturing type – we have a range of options from hand knotted to hand tufted – but mainly for the lead times.
Blvd: And how did you feel the designs turned out?
Gobbo: Well Terrence’s presentation was incredible – I was just blown away. The level of detail, there’s a point of difference. It has great options for flexibility, for different colour palettes.
And then with this fit out [of the Seascape maisonette], Terrence had designed the rug and he said, “Hey, I’m doing this development, can we get this out in time?”
Quah: We found Tappeti while working on another residence here, and that was when I learned that we could swap out a lot of the colours, and do custom colours, which impressed me quite a lot. And so when Karinna proposed that we do a design collaboration, I was like, “Oh, that’s exciting. I’ve always wanted to do this.”
But then you start thinking about it, and you realise, “Oh no, what am I gonna do?” It took a while, but I think from the very start, the first thing I knew we wanted to do was to make sure that whatever we created would be something we could use.
As I approached it, I realised that one of the important things rugs need to do in a space is to create a sense of movement, because spaces tend to be very static otherwise. Everything’s fixed, but you have that one piece that occupies a big part of the floor area, and that’s your chance to create that sense of dynamism.
And I was searching for the language of what could do this – and came across the ‘paper fan’. What fascinated me about it was, it’s just made of straight lines and folds, but the very fact of opening it creates an elegant curve, which implies a certain movement.
Gobbo: We only had a six to eight weeks of lead time from memory. For the short lead time, we needed to use air freight, but it didn’t fit in – we have no restrictions on size or making, but you have restrictions on air freight. So we cut the rug in the line of the movement, and you wouldn’t even notice it.
Blvd: One of the challenges with rugs always seems to be: How is it going to look once it’s in a space, with a whole lot of furniture on it?
Gobbo: That’s why we work with designers. Most of our team have design backgrounds, so when they’re engaging with customers, it starts with the aesthetic – what is the space like? As we custom-make, this can always be a challenge, however, we produce custom design renders that represent your vision.
It is a challenge visualizing the final look, but we do custom samples, and we mainly work with architects and designers, so it is very much their vision, what they want for the space.
Read the full article on Boulevard. Thank you Boulevard for the feature!
Comments