Anna Kaltwasser designed the lobby rugs for The Europe Hotel with Monoplan, Zurich, drawing them from the Irish landscape she had flown over for years. The designs were finished before a single piece of furniture was selected. STEPEVI produced them without asking her to compromise the drawing.
Some of the designs for The Europe Hotel are based on ideas you had been carrying around for a long time. How did that come about?
At Monoplan we accompanied the hotel [The Europe Hotel] in planning terms over several years, and during that time I travelled to Ireland regularly. Every time, the landscape captivated me anew: the topography, the colours, the textures.
When you take off in Zurich and land a few hours later above all that green, it is quite a change. What fascinated me most were the fields seen from the air. Their shapes, their boundaries and their shades of green struck me as small abstract artworks. That gave rise, many years ago, to the idea of designing rugs that tell of the Irish landscape. I kept it in the back of my mind for a long time, and last year there was finally the right place for it. That is why these rugs are so closely connected with the house. They bring a piece of Ireland into the interior of the hotel.
What was the brief for The Europe Hotel project? What role was the rug concept meant to play within the spaces?
The brief was to give the lobby freshness and modernity without losing the soul of the house. The space was to feel contemporary and still make the history of the hotel tangible.
In Ireland, rugs have a strong cultural significance, so it was quickly clear to me that they should take the leading role. The lobby is very large, and my idea was to create several small islands within it: areas each with their own atmosphere that nevertheless come together as a whole. In doing so, I combined four different rug designs in a single room for the first time.
My way of working was unusual, too. I designed the rugs first and only then designed and selected the furniture. The rugs were the foundation of the room, and only once that foundation was in place did the actors come in: furniture, lighting and everything else.
With four designs running at once, what made the difference in terms of production?
The speed at which samples are produced from the STEPEVI side. When a sample is on the table in Zurich within a short space of time, colours, materials and structures can be assessed and adjusted very early in the process. That may sound banal, but it is decisive, because I make my decisions on the actual sample rather than on assumption.
What was the most technically demanding challenge on The Europe Hotel project, and how was it solved?
What mattered to me was playing with different pile heights, because it gives the rugs depth, structure and a stronger tactile effect. At the same time, in a heavily used hotel area there must of course be no tripping edge. Together with STEPEVI we coordinated the differences in height so that they work in design terms and remain completely unproblematic in everyday use.
Is there a technical capability at STEPEVI that has influenced not only what you order, but also how you design?
Yes, the technical precision. When I know that complex geometries and very specific shapes can be executed exactly, I think about the rug differently from the outset. It becomes part of the architecture instead of an object that is placed into a room at the end. We work with exact dimensions, alignments, angles and architectural reference points. That opens up an additional freedom in the design, because I can trust that what has been drawn will actually be made that way.
Of around ten projects you have completed with STEPEVI, where does this one sit?
A difficult question, because every project had its own appeal. But The Europe Hotel is certainly one of the finest. What pleased me particularly was that the rugs there were not added at the end as decoration, but played a central role in the overall concept right from the start.
If you had to describe working with STEPEVI to another designer in a single sentence, what would it be?
I don't like designing with technical limits already in the back of my mind, and at STEPEVI I don't have to: the discussion is never about whether an idea is feasible, only about how best to realise it.
