Knit! By Kvadrat showcases the work of Australian designers

Knit! by Kvadrat is a series of work by 28 different designers exploring the potential of knitted textiles by Kvadrat Febrik. Knit! debuts in Copenhagen during 3 Days of Design (3–5 September 2020) physically and as a digital, interactive exhibition that can be viewed worldwide. This marks the first time Kvadrat has chosen Australian designers to participate in one of their global design initiatives. The two designers selected are Sydney based, Adam Goodrum – an award-winning furniture designer – and Benja Harney, a renowned self-taught paper engineer.

Designers have been chosen from across the world to create pieces with Kvadrat Febrik textiles as the protagonist. Selected by curators Anniina Koivu, Jeffrey Bernett, Johanna Agerman Ross, Njusja de Gier, and Renee Merckx, each designer was picked for their curiosity in experimenting with materials, form and colour, with many operating on the border between industrial design and craft.

Kvadrat Febrik’s knitted textiles are three-dimensional constructions with form-shaping abilities that open up a world of material possibilities. They provide the perfect canvas for the designers to push the boundaries of what can be achieved within their respective disciplines.

The digital exhibition features all 28 works displayed around Kvadrat’s headquarters in Ebeltoft, Denmark, transforming the space into an online gallery. On a dedicated website, viewers will be able to virtually explore the exhibition and see each design in detail, accompanied by the designer who takes the viewer through their inspirations and design process.

Knit! is the fourth edition of Kvadrat’s Design Projects, following iterations dedicated to Kvadrat’s Hallingdal 65, Divina and Canvas textiles.

The curators

Jeffrey Bernett
Selected Ania Jaworska, Paola Sakr, Visibility, Ana Kraš and Objects of Common Interest for Knit!.

Jeffrey Bernett was born in Illinois and studied design at Parnham College in the United Kingdom, before founding the design firm CDS in New York in 1995. He presented CDS’s first collection, Ideas for Production, at the 1996 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, and was awarded the top honour, the Editor’s Award for Best of Show. Since then, the firm has gone on to win a number of awards and prizes, with work spanning several disciplines: residential and office furniture, household products, lighting, industrial packaging, transportation design, communication and graphic design, and interior architecture. Bernett has worked with a range of furniture brands, including B&B Italia, Boffi, Cappellini and Ligne Roset. Other clients include BMW, Boeing, Condé Nast, Mercedes Benz, Michael Kors and Northwest Airlines/Delta.

Njusja de Gier
Selected Elaine Yan Ling Ng / The Fabrick Lab, Studio Akane Moriyama, Adam Goodrum Studio, Marie Sloth Rousing, Benja Harney, Shigeki Fujishiro, Malmö Upcycling Service, Lim + Lu and Wataru Kumano for Knit!.

Njusja de Gier is the Senior Vice President Marketing at the Kvadrat Group. In her role, she is responsible for all global marketing and branding of Kvadrat’s eight brands: Kvadrat, Kvadrat/Raf Simons, Kvadrat Febrik, Kinnasand, Kvadrat Soft Cells, Kvadrat Shade, Sahco and Really. She has been a driving force behind Kvadrat’s design and art projects, including Textile Field (2011), Hallingdal 65 (2012), The Dwelling Lab (2013), Blue is Divine (2014), My Canvas (2016), and publications including Interwoven (2013), Your Glacial Expectations (2015), Daily Flower Report (2019) and Kvadrat’s online magazine Interwoven. Before joining Kvadrat in 2008, Njusja held positions at Wibroe Duckert & Partners, MTV, and Proctor & Gamble. She holds an MBA from Erasmus University/ Rotterdam School of Management and a masters from Nyenrode Business University.

Renee Merckx
Selected Studio Bertjan Pot, Raw Color, Studio Truly Truly and Léa Baert for Knit!.

Renee Merckx is the creative director of the knitted textiles company Febrik, which she co-founded with her partner Jos Pelders in 2013. After graduating from Design Academy Eindhoven in 1995, she worked as a textile designer for several textile companies and manufacturers. Merckx eventually focused her efforts on knitting, and began to create ground-breaking upholstery textiles with the help of the latest 3D-knitting technologies. These experiments culminated in the launch of Febrik, whose textiles soon ended up on furniture from brands such as Moroso, Ligne Roset and Moooi. Febrik was acquired by Kvadrat in 2018, a move that Merckx welcomed as a major acknowledgement of her work in the field of innovative textile production and design.

Johanna Agerman Ross
Selected Ayzit Bostan, Bahraini — Danish, Faysal Tabbarah (Architecture + Other Things), Maria Blaisse and Bin Xu and Yinka Ilori for Knit!.

Johanna Agerman Ross is an editor, curator and design historian. She is the Curator of Twentieth Century and Contemporary Furniture and Product Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and is also the founder and director of the quarterly design journal Disegno. She was Disegno’s editor-in-chief and publisher between 2011 and 2016, having previously worked as an editor at Icon magazine. Originally from Sweden, Agerman Ross moved to London to study at the London College of Fashion and the Royal College of Art, and has now made the city her permanent home. She lectures widely and has taught at the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins in the UK; guest-lectured at HEAD Genève and been part of crits at ECAL in Switzerland, Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States.

Anniina Koivu
Selected Julie Richoz, Zaven, Camille Blatrix and Joschua Brunn (Carmine Brown), Giulia Chéhab, Michel Charlot for Knit!.

Anniina Koivu is a design writer, curator, consultant and teacher based between Milan and Lausanne. Originally from Finland, she studied architecture in Venice and Helsinki before joining Abitare as design editor, and later Vitra as director of research. Koivu works across a number of fields, from curation to art direction and product development. Recent projects include U-Joints, an ongoing research and exhibition series which premiered at the Salone del Mobile in 2018; Tehdas-Fabrik-Factory, an exhibition exploring design production at the 2019 Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale; and Fuori catalogo, a research project looking at the reasons why a product goes out of production, based on the Vico Magistretti archive. Koivu is Head of Master Theory at ECAL in Lausanne, and regularly produces design strategies and research projects for clients such as Kvadrat, Camper, Vitra and Iittala.

3 Days of Design – 3-5 September 2020

Knit! will be presented in the Kvadrat showroom in Copenhagen during 3 Days of Design.

Read more about the exhibition, designer talks and register for the events at kvadrat.dk/3daysofdesign