Explore North Spain through the eyes of CPR
Discover fun moodboard ideas
Custom curated patterns
DESIGN & INSPIRE No.4
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November 2020
HI HI, In this month’s issue of Talk Carpet Magazine, we’re exploring the North of Spain, together with the multicultural capital of Madrid. The COVIDpandemic hit this region hard, and even though the government put a lot of effort into attracting tourists, many businesses of design interest remain closed. Nevertheless, we are able to document an excellent representation of Spanish talent, mixed with innovative custom patterns and fun material boards for that fresh dose of inspiration. We visit projects by star architects Frank Gehry and Norman Foster in the wine regions La Rioja and the Ribero del Duero and get to enjoy all the splendor while at the same time tasting some excellent Reserva wines. In Barcelona, we’re diving deep into Catalan Modernist design, with as the climax the recently opened Casa Vicens by Antoni Gaudi. This project only recently opened to the public, a first in 130 years. In Madrid, we’re exploring a large variety of hospitality projects, together with a unique art installation in Retiro Parc’s Palacio de Cristal. I hope you enjoy exploring this region with us and find inspiration for your current or future projects. Stay awesome! Christophe Prosper Rammant, Creative Director
North Spain vlog
Spotify Playlist of North Spain
Talk Carpet Socials
table of contents
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Exploring the patterns, colors and textures of Modernist Barcelona
Jaime Hayรณn adds a playful aesthetic to the Barcelo Torre de Madrid
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Casa Vicens
Restaurant of restaurants in a former Modernist garage
Custom Patterns of the month
Material board inspired by Poltrona Frau x Range Rover collab
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Foster + Partners designs Portia Winery as a church of wine
Bold gold leaf palm trees at this concept store in Barcelona
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Heterofriendly Axel Hotel
Lights out with this nighttime skyline carpet
Retiro Park Museums
Only you Atocha pays homage to the Big Apple
Mooboards of the month
Thom Browne inspired material board
Wine bottle design inspires vineyard hotel by Frank Gehry
Discover Spanish restaurant design at these three Madrilenian dining spots
Embajadores museums
Little blue door inspires this geometric linear carpet pattern
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Exploring the patterns, colors and textures
of Modernist Barcelona We are taking you on a tour of Modernism in Barcelona, an important period in which the Catalan elite used architecture and art to define a nationalist Catalan identity.
The main star architects of Catalan Modernism are Antoni Gaudi and Lluís Domènech i Montaner, of whom we’re visiting buildings in this post. Their work is defined by the abundant use of curves instead of straight lines and dynamic shapes’ preference over static forms. Material use is often centered around ceramics, glass, and mosaic tiles decorated with florals or other motifs from nature. Often, sculptures or patterns refer back to important Catalan legends and history, further shaping this Catalan identity through design. 4
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First up is Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudi on the Passeig de Gràcia, one of the main avenues leading to the Ramblas. The house was initially the work of one of Gaudi’s architecture professors, and Gaudi was hired by a prominent businessman to demolish and replace it with a new Gaudi building. Gaudi, however, convinced his client to do an extensive remodel, where the facade was entirely changed.
The next stop north on the Passeig de Gracia is La Pedrera, also known under its official name Casa Milá. La Pedrera is Catalan for stone quarry, a name the locals have given it due to the exteriors similarity to a quarry. This apartment complex was the last project undertaken by Gaudí before he devoted all his time to the Sagrada Familia. 5
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The third stop of our Catalan Modernism tour is Park Guell, also from the hand of Antoni Gaudí. His work for this park is very playful and focuses on natural forms.
For the last stop on our tour, we’re visiting a design by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The Palau de la Musica is a concert hall built in the Catalan Modernist style; however, it clearly appears more rational and built to its function. Dominated by the organ on stage, with a central skylight representing the sun, the hall is filled with natural light. It is a mystical concert hall, crowded with figures such as the muses surrounding the stage, Wagner’s Valkyries emerging from the ceiling, a bust of Anselm Clavé on one side and Beethoven on the other, in addition to hundreds of natural ornaments such as flowers, palm trees, fruit, vases and glass cases filled with jewelry. 6
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CASA VICENS After 130 years, it is finally possible to visit Gaudí’s first project
Casa Vicens by Gaudí re-opened to the public only two years ago, after a four-year renovation returning it to its original state. The house is of great architectural value since it is the first important commission Antoni Gaudí received as a young architect. Designed as a summer house for the Vicens family in 1883, it is also one of the first buildings kicking off the Catalan Modernism movement. The house has never been open to the general public, so visiting this masterpiece felt extra special. A new staircase was added to adapt the home to its new museum and cultural site use, replacing the non-original staircase during previous renovations. We are amazed by the stunning architectural lines in this staircase, work of Elías Torres, José Antonio Martínez Lapeña, and David Garcia. 7
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M o o d b o a r d s
Material board inspired by
Poltrona Frau x Range Rover collab
We recently learned about this collaboration between luxury titans Range Rover and Poltrona Frau.
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For the flagship Range Rover edition SVAutobiography, the British car manufacturer offers the optional spec of two Poltrona Frau leather interiors. Nearly all surface materials are wrapped in extreme luxury, inspiring us to create a lush and warm materials board in the same ambiance.
Highline express stone surface by egecarpets
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Bold gold leaf palm trees at this concept store in Barcelona
Darial is a luxury concept store located in the trendy Dreta de l’Eixample neighborhood in Barcelona, which opened in the fall of 2019. 10
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Housed in an abandoned Modernist textile warehouse, the interior is truly magical. Designed by founder and creative director Djabe Diassamidze, a Paris-based fashion designer, the place exudes Parisian chic dressed in art deco glamour. We love the Persian influences in the arched doorways, dotted folding screens, and Persian shaped mirrors. The in-house brasserie Le LĂŠopard allows you to dine in this minimally opulent interior and enjoy very high-quality French-Italian cuisine. Darial definitely stands out as an experiential store and an example of modern luxury retail.
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Lights out with this nighttime skyline carpet For this custom carpet, we’re taking inspiration from the beauty of nighttime skylines.
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There is something soothing and magical about seeing all these small squares of light spread out over the horizon. We created an abstract iteration with monochromatic colors for this skyline carpet pattern and feel this would be a great choice for a large ballroom space, hotel, or multifamily corridors. 13
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Retiro Park Museums The Palacio de Cristal and Palacio de Velázquez in Madrid’s Retiro Park are both parts of the National Reina Sofia Art Centre.
We visited two really conceptual exhibits and loved both. First up is the giant nest of flowers by Petrit Halilaj, the first solo exhibit in Spain for this Kosovo born artist. He has turned the Palacio de Cristal into a giant nest that connects the interior with the exterior, linking visitors to their surroundings by opening windows, installing structures, and setting up feeding areas to attract the birds and other creatures inhabiting or transiting through Parque del Retiro. He draws inspiration from the bowerbirds’ courtship ritual, which makes elaborate nests and decorates them with colorful objects to attract a mate. The experience of walking through this giant flower nest was so extraordinary that we also created an abstract carpet pattern inspired by the art installation.
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The second exhibition in the park is a retrospective on Italian artist Mario Merz. The focus is on his works that are suspended in pre-historic times and use organic materials such as clay, branches, wax, and coal. He often associates with pre-modern imagery such as the igloo, ancestral animals, the rival, or the spiral.
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thom browne inspired materials board
There is something incredibly elegant about how American fashion designer Thom Browne approaches suiting. 18
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M o o d b o a r d s
We absolutely love the use of traditional patterns such as plaids, pinstripes, and herringbones in brand new ways. This is an approach we love to take in our own standard collections and custom carpet patterns. The materials board inspired by Thom Browne includes several contract products from multiple manufacturers, most of which can be found on Material Bank. The mood board’s carpet is a standard pattern from ege carpets their designer collection Canvas Collage, called Twine grey. This commercial carpet is available in a selection of nine carpet constructions that come in carpet tile or broadloom.
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Wine bottle design inspires vineyard hotel by Frank Gehry The Marques de Riscal vineyard is the initial trendsetter in transforming vineyards into luxury hotel destinations, a trend which started in the 2000s and continues on its meteoric rise till today throughout Europe.
It also marked the start of winemakers hiring star architects to draw visitors to their vineyards and transform their vintages into worldwide brands. An excellent example is Chateau La Coste, which we previously featured and has become a world-renowned architectural and sculpture park.
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The location of the Marques de Riscal Hotel in the Spanish Rioja area couldn’t be more idyllic, thanks to its location in the old town of Eltziego. Looking out of the suite windows, the building structure creates the local village’s perfect picture frame view. There’s something special in experiencing the contrast between Gehry’s artwork and the town’s historical value. Gehry found inspiration for his design in the metal netting that wraps each Marques de Riscal wine bottle since the 19th century, introduced to prevent counterfeiting. The metal facade’s ruby colors refer to the red wine color and create a magnificent contrast with the green environment. 21
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aRCHITECTURAL cLASSIC
The museum that became synonymous with a city transformation phenomenon, the “Bilbao effect, can’t miss from our North of Spain tour. 22
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Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim opened in 1997, boosted Bilbao’s economy with smashing success, and changed the way architects and cities think about museums. To date, the museum has had over 22 million visitors and fulfilled its original intentions as a transformational project. The design resembles a boat that also flips its tail, like a fish jumping out of the Nervión river. The walk around the building is magnificent, exploring the different angles and sparkling imagination. It also allows exploring the outdoor artworks such as the giant flower puppy by Jeff Koons, the spider by Louise Bourgeois and the Arcos Rojos by Daniel Buren installed on and under the La Salve bridge.
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Little blue door inspires this geometric linear carpet pattern
Often the smallest details we observe in unexpected moments can become the largest sources of inspiration. 24
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This little blue door we discovered, triggered our creative mind to design a linear and geometric pattern. We love the playfulness of this custom carpet and mix of curved lines with alternating stripe thicknesses. The colors are warm and rich, yet still offer a subdued aesthetic.
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Jaime Hayón adds a playful aesthetic to the
Barcelo Torre de Madrid Right from the first moment you walk through the front door at the Barcelo Torre de Madrid, you appreciate the playfulness of the design. With a zebra-striped pattern and brass top hat, an enormous bear sculpture greets you and welcomes you to a bright-colored world. The bear is actually a fun nod to Madrid’s coat of arms, which is signature to the joyful interior design of Jaime Hayon. Throughout the project, he takes you on a visual journey through Spain’s past, mixing Roman architectural elements and Moorish influences with tons of rich brass jewel tones. The artwork features and celebrates Flamenco dancers, bullfighters, and traditional Spanish costumes. Many of the furnishings and light fixtures are from Hayon’s multiple collaborations with Fritz Hansen, Gubi, Arflex, Cassina, and BD Barcelona. Think Monkey table, Catch chairs, and Palette tables.
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Restaurant of restaurants in a former Modernist garage El Nacional at the heart of Barcelona is a multi-restaurant food experience that presents itself as a restaurant of restaurants.
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The concept unites the most prominent Spanish cuisines in a meticulously designed space that feels surprisingly uniform and cohesive.
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The Barcelona based interior design team of Lรกzaro RosaViolรกn truly transformed this Modernist garage into a bustling and trendy culinary spot. For each restaurant, decorative elements are sourced from the same area the cuisine stems from. This approach, together with the use of reclaimed materials, creates an authentic vibe that adds to the total experience.
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Changing leaves and rolling fall hills inspire this custom carpet
The color story of changing leaves is something that amazes us year after year. It is the one thing that truly makes up for the rainy fall months, an endless scenery of paintery rolling hills. For this custom fall carpet pattern, we created a painted interpretation of the Indian Summer color story.
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Modern leopard print pattern for a unique carpet statement
There’s something special about animal print patterns that these find their way to fashion in each season, one way or another. Whether it is in its pure form, a worn variant, a vibrant color variant, or a minimal accessory. We haven’t seen an ultra-cool interpretation of leopard print carpet yet, so we figured it appropriate to create our own variant: a unique carpet with a modern leopard print. We have blown up the scale, made it more abstract painterly, and switched colors to vibrant fall colors.
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Minimal angular staircase draws the lines of this custom carpet
Casa Vicens by Gaudi re-opened to the public earlier this year, after a four-year renovation. A new staircase was added to adapt the home to its new museum and cultural site use, replacing the non-original staircase put in during previous renovations. We are amazed by the stunning architectural lines in this staircase and let the linework draw this custom carpet’s lines.
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Runway inspired carpet based on fine unraveled fringes
We often find inspiration on the runway for our standard carpet collections and custom carpets, especially in the couture brands, where bold statements and out of the box thinking are the norm. We took fine unraveled fringes as our starting point for this fringe carpet pattern and created an almost three-dimensional carpet pattern. The statement is bold, yet sophisticated just as the looks on the runway.
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Sand artworks by Dutch artist Nico Laan inspire custom carpet
We recently discovered the sand artworks by Dutch artist Nico Laan. At the beaches of the North Sea, he created bigger than life art sculpted in the sand. We were immediately inspired to create a minimal looking carpet pattern mimicking these sculpted lines. The geometric patterns transform organically as the work gets eroded by wind and water, reflected in our custom carpet pattern.
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Ski tracks and angular lines of ski slopes create pattern
Soon enough, we can hit those ski slopes again, creating patterns with our ski tracks and enjoying the mountains’ silence. Often we have contemplated creating a carpet pattern inspired by the continuous horizon of ski slopes, so here it. The pattern comprises multiple mirrored facets that each has a distinct organic pattern reflecting ski tracks.
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Foster + Partners designs
Portia Winery as a church of wine
In the 2000s, Marques de Riscal started a new trend hiring world-renowned architects to design statement wineries. Portia Winery followed suit by hiring Norman Foster for their Ribera del Duero headquarters, a Spanish region home to many wineries. This was the first winery to be designed by Foster + Partners, so they really looked at this building type with a fresh and innovative concept. The trefoil design takes advantage of the natural topology of the landscape to aid in the vinification process. Trucks drive on a ramp on one of the wings and drive off on a second ramp on the second wing. They drop the grapes straight into the sorting facility at the center of the building, taking benefit of gravity and avoiding mechanical conveyor belts.
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At the interior, each wing represents a different function and step in the winemaking process: fermentation in steel vats, aging in oak barrels, and aging in bottles. The two aging processes occur in the wings partly embedded in the natural landscape. Material choices are concrete, wood, steel, and glass, representing all materials linked to the winemaking process: the terroir or soil, the barrels, the fermentation vats, and the bottles. The level of detail in the design is impressive as even the steel fermentation vats have been designed from the ground up by the Foster + Partners team. Throughout the three wings, red-stained windows have been added as a reference to medieval churches, reinforcing this winery’s stature to be a church of wine.
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heterofriendly
AXEL HOTEL
The Axel hotel brand is a hetero-friendly hotel group on a rapid expansion course.
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The hotel chain is specifically geared to the LGBTQ community and aims to create free spaces where sexual diversity is welcome and promoted. For their Madrid location, interiors studio El Equipo Creativo transformed the 19th-century palace into a modern design hotel. The bold use of color blends old and new in an elegant fashion while creating spaces that invite both rest and play. That element of sexy playfulness is at the core of the Axel brand and their marketing campaigns.
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Only you Atocha pays homage to the Big Apple
We have recently seen the hospitality design of Barcelona-based interior design studio Lรกzaro Rosa Violรกn at the El Nacional restaurant concept in Barcelona.
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At the Only You Atocha Hotel, they achieve the same level of exquisite authenticity by using many reclaimed decor items and building materials. Located at the Atocha train station and right next to the Golden Triangle of Art, you wouldn’t expect an NYC-themed hotel in this area of Madrid. However, thanks to its meticulous execution, the concept actually works and draws quite some traffic as we could experience ourselves. Material choices include many painted exposed bricks, metro tiles, and plywood to enhance the NYC loft feeling. The addition of popup shops such as a gin bar, barbershop, and coffee shop housed in a container provides a city plaza vibe.
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Ultra modern cabin pod inspires this mood board
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Smoky cigar club inspired materials board
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21st century translation of a sixties office design
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Veterans day material board paying tribute to our veterans
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Let’s get spooky with endless cobwebs
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Carved pumpkins and fall leaves inspire this AUTUMN themed mood board
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Thanksgiving table inspired moodboard
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Axel Vervoordt inspired mood board
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Discover Spanish restaurant design at these three Madrilenian dining spots We discovered a clear Spanish interior design trend to bring joy and playfulness in the interiors while keeping a sophisticated balance of decor elements. There is a vast use of natural materials such as wood, clay, and plants to create a cozy and slightly exotic ambiance. The first two restaurants we’re visiting are from Madrid based interiors studio Proyecto Singular. Their focus is on restaurant design with tons of truly amazing references in a very distinct style.
Botania restaurant in downtown Madrid embraces nature to its fullest by keeping a very playful element. We love the rounded benches and chairs, the rattan ceiling filled with ferns, and Balinese inspired lamps. The addition of marble herringbone floors creates an enjoyable contrast to the natural design elements.
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Next up is a burger restaurant from the same interiors group at Proyecto Singular for client New York Burger. We love the hanging grass feature at the center of the space, together with soft curves and pinks to create a relaxed and warm atmosphere.
Next up is Mexican restaurant Santita designed by interiors studio Madrid in Love. The food is divine and the interior feels spot-on, we especially love the wall finish and the wallintegrated sculptures. We can’t agree more with their wall statement, it sure is true. If life gives you lemons, ask for salt and tequila.
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Embajadores museums The Embajadores neighborhood in Madrid is by far the capital’s coolest area, thanks to its multi-cultural crowd, vibrant squares, street art, trendy shops, and major cultural centers.
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We visited these two art centers: La Tabacalera and La Casa Encendida. La Tabacalera is housed in an old tobacco factory set up by the government in the 18th century as a Royal Factory. The building now houses a cultural space run by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. We visited the exhibit by Javier Chozas under the subject “the constructed skin.” He wants to start an open reflection on the articulation of desire, vanity, and guilt, which is increasingly defined and designed in the digital world. The second major cultural center in Embajadores is the La Casa Encendida, where an exhibition presents selected works by artist Jiří Georg Dokoupil from the Czech republic. He is constantly changing his creative style and creation procedures, defying to be placed in a specific category.
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Talk Carpet Social
Spotify Playlist of North Spain
North Spain vlog
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