The Floor Story with Adam Nathaniel Furman
Combining beauty and function, designer Adam Nathaniel Furman creates a series of rugs for FLOOR_STORY which lends a beautiful Mediterranean vibe to a home. By Aarthi Sriram
Designer Adam Nathaniel Furman has collaborated with leading rug maker and FLOOR_STORY’s head designer, Gill Thorpe on choosing qualities, constructions, and yarn from a selection of more than 1,500 colours that reflect the exquisite pigments captured under the bright, Mediterranean sun. The collection comprises 13 rugs which can be bespoke and custom- made to size on request.
The rugs are a combination of handwoven and tufted styles which are made in India by some of the world’s most skilled rug makers and are crafted from 100% New Zealand wool, which offer excellent dye, bringing a rich vibrancy in colour as well as an enduring quality and underfoot feel. Each piece is Good Weave certified, to ensure fair and ethical conditions.
“I am intrigued by the way rugs and soft floor finishes have been a constant throughout human history. They are both ways of expressing ourselves, values, personalities, love, and passion – whilst also turning floors that can otherwise just be forgotten, walked-over, and ignored parts of our homes into places to relax and dwell. The pieces are designed to be landscapes of pleasure,” says Adam. He also added, “I was blown away by the collaborations that FLOOR_STORY has so far successfully undertaken, with so many designers that I respect and love. It is a sign of a great company with passion and vision”.
Design Inspiration
Inspired by the Mediterranean, Adam has weaved his love for craft, pattern, architectural history and travel, and added references of ancient ruins, repetitive geometrics on ancient pottery, sunsets, radial forms of roman mosaics, and strong primary shapes of marble pavements in the Pantheon to the collection.
“I make sure that everything I design embodies a kind of voluptuous sensuality which is expressed through colour, texture, pattern, form, and ornamentation. The designs are intended to immerse you in history and tradition, but treat both with lightness, irreverence, and fun. This collection brings references and techniques from ancient times and the recent past, and turns them into the present, with joy,” says the designer.
The rectangular hand-tufted piece is called “Dipylon” named in honour of the Dipylon master who has produced some of the greatest pottery of the pre-classical period, festooned in a repetitive linear ornament.
The square pieces are called “Pantheon” in honour of the great pavement in that monument which is inspired by its bold and simple forms. The gradient piece is called “Hesperides”, in honour of the nymphs of the golden light of sunset; overseeing this is a bit of Aegean landscape with its architecture in your living room.
The circular piece is called “Armerina” after the great mosaics of Piazza Armerina, and the other, handwoven rectangular piece in multiple colours is called “Meandros” as it is a simple and bold love letter to that most ancient of the Mediterranean classical decorative motifs.
Simon Goff, founder of FLOOR_STORY says, “We’re delighted to be collaborating with Adam on the Mediterranean capsule; his combination of tone and form come across beautifully and the classical Greek and Roman roots of the designs bring surprising and delightful rugs that typify our love for pattern and colour”.
Adam Nathaniel Furman is an artist and designer of Argentine and Japanese heritage based in London. Adam is trained in Architecture and Fine Art and is continuing to work in those areas, as well as creating products, interiors, writing, and teaching. Adam’s work has been exhibited in London, Paris, New York, Milan, Rome, Eindhoven, Minneapolis, Portland, Kortrijk, Tel Aviv, Veszprem, Mumbai, Vienna, and Glasgow. His collections are held at the Design Museum, the Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Abet Museum, and the Architectural Association. Adam has lectured at the RIBA, Harvard GSD, UC Berkeley, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Cardiff University, Innsbruck University, the Casa dell’Architettura Rome, the BSR, and the Biennale Interieur, amongst others, and has taught courses at several universities.
He has been a Studio Master at Central St Martins in London, co-director of Saturated Space at the AA (an influential research group on colour in Urbanism and Architecture), and a judge for the Dezeen and FRAME awards, amongst others.
“I bring equal parts of pleasure, colour, and joy, as well as critical consideration, reflection, and depth to any project which I take up. My designs are always approachable and take inspiration from a passionate and lifelong exploration of the themes of Queerness, colour, and ornament as a political-aesthetic project, with my objects, artwork, spaces and installations invariably being embodiments of the diasporic, fluid, and roaming cultures that surrounded me as I grew,” says the artist.
