'fellow rugs' linked with NFT tuft pastel carpets on demand from anywhere in the world

Swiss carpet manufacturer Ruckstuhl, designer Stephan Hürlemann, and online media company DAAily Platforms decentralize rug-making by adopting the NFT technology for their Fellow Rugs project, enabling users to virtually keep an eye on the carpet production from conception to post-delivery. The design collective has also created the DAAily Wallet to mark its entrance into the NFT and decentralization dynamism.

Through NFT, anyone who wants to order a Fellow Rug first buys a digital representative before initiating the production of the rug in the nearest cooperating manufacturing site across the world. Ruckstuhl plans to cooperate with other carpet manufacturers and build up a network of production sites for the Fellow Rugs.

images courtesy of Ruckstuhl | photos by Stefan Altenburger

The congregation of rug makers within the Fellow Rugs community means the carpets are produced on demand based on the client's and Ruckstuhl's specifications. In this way, no excess rugs are produced and materials that are tufted into the rugs are sourced locally and based on materials found within the region where the rugs are made. The design collective says that the Fellow Rugs project is the culmination of a joint experiment to bolster the eco-balance of products and realize how the furniture industry can become more sustainable.

‘Ruckstuhl has been producing carpets from natural fibers since 1881. Sustainability is deeply rooted in our DNA. Nevertheless, we also have to question our established ways, recognize the need for action and improve. The Fellow Project serves as a roadmap for us. It shows us where we can start,’ says Adrian Berchtold, Managing Director of the carpet manufacturer Ruckstuhl, on what drives the design project. By also producing the rugs locally, orders that have to be shipped abroad using aircraft are avoided, helping reduce carbon emissions.

there is a QR code attached to every rug

The Fellow Rugs project with Ruckstuhl and DAAily Platforms showed up during Milan Design Week 2023 as part of the exhibition ‘Fellow – Metamorphosis of a Rug’, conceived by Stephan Hürlemann himself, occupying the Gallery Assab One space near Cimiano. Alongside Hürlemann's design, the Fellow Rugs showcase future-forward ideas for processes, services, and rituals that can be applied to other items within and beyond the design and creative realms.

The design collective states that the project aims to establish a more sustainable system by shortening supply routes, extending the useful life of products – rugs in this case – and simplifying processes for a more conscious use of the objects. To make these happen, people should be informed on how to take care of the rugs. There is a need to learn the nature and background of the carpets rather than buying them from the get-go solely for their aesthetics.

through NFT, anyone who wants to order a Fellow Rug starts the production of their rug

Hürlemann has designed each carpet in the Fellow collection to be one of a kind, with no design alike. In fact, the NFT-linked rugs have their own online diary, dubbed Fellowship Diary, which specifies the life journey of each rug including its creation on a tufting robot, how to clean and repair the carpet, and where and what are the materials sourced for their chosen tapestry. The Fellow Rugs project invites its owners to document their relationship with their rug – where they have placed it or how they use it as a design element, for instance – and share it in the diary, making them an automatic active member within the Fellow Rugs community.

Following the circularity ethos of Ruckstuhl that Hürlemann and DAAily Platforms support and uphold, the carpet manufacturer extends the life of its previously produced rugs by owning back pre-owned rugs from their original owners and attesting their good condition with a ‘proofed by Ruckstuhl’ certificate. The old rugs are given to present owners and sold alongside recently made ones, and by making the pre-owned rugs certified and available for a new purchase, the longevity of the rugs is ensured, and consumption is infinitely valued.

Ruckstuhl plans to cooperate with other carpet manufacturers and build up a network of production sites

For Fellow Rugs, designer Stephan Hürlemann conceives design elements that can create countless unique rugs. He takes up patterns of geometry, combines them with pixel blocks, and imbues the architecture-nuanced design with pastel hues to generate yarn-tufted rugs. His concept of 14 colors and five rectangles, each rectangle comprising one or two color areas, is brought together to birth atmospheric worlds reminiscent of city maps or pixel graphics.

The first results are 75 carpet designs in five different formats and shapes with individual personalities. A rectangular rug embraces soft pink disrupted by linear and non-linear lines in rich palettes. Overlapping colors of triangular blocks try to take up as much space as they can inside a cube-form rug. A circular carpet in green and black blocks recalls the fragrant gasses of golf courses. Hürlemann is in pursuit of unfurling and playing with segmented color combinations for his rug designs.

the rug design's concept is based on 14 colors and five rectangles, each rectangle comprising one or more color areas

Hürlemann has designed each carpet in the Fellow collection to be one of a kind, with no design alike

the Fellow Rugs was present during Milan Design Week 2023 as part of the exhibition conceived by Stephan Hürlemann

project info:

name: Fellow Rugs

designer: Stephan Hürlemann

carpet: Ruckstuhl

media: DAAily Platforms